First of all: I am sorry. It’s been 8 days since my last post and I am truly sorry. It’s been so busy here lately that I had no time to either photograph or write. I am baking but I am also baking old recipes that I’ve already posted. For example, I made 15 dozen Raisin Cookies, which left me with 20 egg whites. Some of those were used in the Christmas Macarons, one or two were used for Spitzbuben cookies. But I still have some left and so I made this Christmas Meringue.
The recipe is fairly simple with only three ingredients. The trick with meringue is the whipping and the baking.
Ingredients:
– 4 egg whites
– 250g sugar
– Gingerbread spices
In Germany you buy the gingerbread spices per-packaged. I haven’t seen them here but you can easily make your own. It would be good to have a digital scale, otherwise you have to guess a bit.
Ingredients Gingerbread spices:
– 35g cinnamon
– 9g cloves
– 2g allspice
– 1g nutmeg
– 2g coriander
– 1g cardamom
– 1g mace
– 2g ginger
Combine all spices well and use as directed in the recipe.
Make sure your bowl and whisk are clean and without any grease. Let the egg white reach room temperature before whipping. Let them whip for a while until slightly foamy before you add the sugar. Slowly add the sugar so it has a chance to combine well. Then add the gingerbread spice. Whip the mixture until you have a stiff meringue. The whipping process might take a while. You can check by removing the whisk and see if the meringue flows. Even if it doesn’t flow anymore it might not be stiff enough. See if the meringue on the whisk “slouches” or moves. Once it doesn’t you are good to go.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe away. You can do heaps, rings, or any other form you like. Meringue doesn’t spread very much so you should be fine if you need to squeeze it a bit.
Bake at 130°C with the stove door slightly open for 30 min, then check to see how they look like. They can be slightly brown but just a hint and they should be solid to the touch. If not, give it another 5 to 10 min and check again. Remove from the oven and let them cool before serving. You can dip them in melted chocolate for an extra decorative touch.
Happy baking.
Baking in Saskatoon 