Description
Ghostbuster meringue cookies make any Halloween dessert a little bit spooky and everyone smile! These feather-light, crunchy confections taste great all by themselves, but they make a perfect dessert topper for cheesecakes and taste great floating on top of hot cocoa, or with a scoop of ice cream.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 1/4 cup superfine or regular sugar (220g)
- 1 1/2 cups confectioner sugar (197g)
- 6 large egg whites, room temperature (200g-225g)
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (or another flavored extract)
Instructions
- Preheat oven 250°F/120°C. Preheat the oven and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Measure the dry ingredients. Add the sugars and cornstarch to a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Separate the eggs. Separate the egg whites from the yolks and be sure not to get any yolk in the whites.
- Make the meringue. Using a handheld mixer (or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment), beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on low speed until the eggs are foamy (about 2 minutes). Add the salt and slowly increase the speed. When the volume has doubled and the egg whites are opaque, start slowly sprinkling sugar one tablespoon at a time (over 4-5 minutes) while continuing to beat the whites until glossy and they hold stiff peaks. Fold in the vanilla.
- Pipe the meringues. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe the meringue ghosts onto the parchment paper.
- Bake the meringues. Bake meringues for 30 minutes and reduce the temperature to 225°F/105°C and bake for 2 hours. Turn the oven off, open the oven door open and allow the meringues to cool for 30 minutes. Remove them from the oven to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Decorate Ghostbuster Meringues. When the meringues have cooled, use an edible marker to draw faces onto the ghosts, and Enjoy!
Notes
- Do not use a plastic bowl to beat egg whites. Plastic bowls can hold on to residual oil from use over time which would keep the egg whites from whipping to stiff peaks. Instead use only glass, stainless steel, or copper so that you can be sure there is no fat or oil of any kind in the bowl.
- Cold eggs are easier to separate than room temperature eggs. You may separate the eggs when they’re cold, but make sure you let the whites sit out for about 10 minutes until they reach room temperature before whipping. They whip up better this way and don’t take nearly as long to reach stiff peaks.
- Meringues are fully cooked when the internal temperature reaches 165°F/74°C.
- For chewy meringues, bake them for around 1 hour less.
- If you want to flavor your meringues, after you fold in the vanilla (or another flavored extract), you can also add in chopped nuts or chocolate for a different flavor. Just before baking, you can sprinkle piped meringues with sugar.
- For super smooth and shiny meringues, use superfine sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. If you don’t have superfine sugar, simply process regular sugar a few times in a food processor to achieve a superfine consistency. Regular sugar tastes just the same but will leave granular bumps in your meringue.
- To make this a vegan meringue recipe, for every 1 large egg white, replace with 2 tablespoons of aquafaba (the liquid drained off of a can of chickpeas or dried chickpea cooking liquid).
- Halve the recipe if you need less Ghost Meringues. This recipe makes a lot of meringue which is perfect for entertaining or baking for Halloween parties, but if you just need a few to top this spooky Halloween cheesecake, make a 1/2 recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 to 2 meringues
