I don’t know about anyone else, but summer always ends up being a time of grandiose baking plans for me. I say plans, because despite the fact that I usually have time off (one of the perks of being a teacher) and spend quite a bit of that time at home in the US with my Mum who is also an avid baker, I tend to stop at the planning stages. Not because I want to, mind you. I think it has more to do with the fact that after those long, dark Norwegian winters, I feel like a bear coming out of hibernation and I just have to get out of the house and do everything imaginable outside. Also, because it’s hot here in central Oregon during the summer, my Pappo often bans the extended use of the oven. 90 degree+ days don’t mix well with oven use. Despite the fact that I showed up with my usual long list of baking ideas, I figured this summer would be much the same. What I didn’t expect was to show up to a list of baking plans that my Mum had made, following by a pile of cookbooks and a trip to the bookstore to get more. This may just be the summer of baking in this house! With the 4th of July just around the corner, we decided to tackle that first, and came up with a super easy, summery dessert! These sweet little meringues may require a fair amount of low-temperature baking, but they’re so worth it!
Red, White, and Blue Meringues
Makes about 30 2″ meringues
What you’ll need:
4 large egg whites
1 cup + 1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Food coloring in red and blue
Start by preheating your oven to 200* Fahrenheit (about 95* Celsius) and lining two baking sheets with parchment paper. I’ll warn you right now, these meringues take about 4-6 hours to bake, so keep that in mind when preparing to bake these. In a large bowl over a pot of boiling water, whisk your egg whites and granulated sugar together until all of the sugar has dissolved. You can test this by sticking your finger in the mixture and seeing if you can still feel the sugar granules. If you can’t, it’s ready, if you can feel the granules, keep stirring. Once all of the sugar has dissolved, remove your bowl from the pot of boiling water and whisk on high (with an electric mixer) until the meringue has cooled to room temperature (about 8-10 minutes). The meringue should also be glossy and should hold stiff peaks. Whisk in the vanilla extract at the very end.
To get the red, white, and blue effect, run four strips of food coloring (two red and two blue) down the length of a piece of plastic wrap. Try to evenly space them. Spoon your meringue onto the plastic wrap, roll it up nice and tight and drop into your piping bag. You can pipe with whatever tip you’d like, but I used a Wilton 1M tip to create the shape you see. Pipe all of your meringues and bake for 4-6 hours, or until they’re crisp and can be peeled away from the parchment paper easily.
These can be stored for up to 7 days in an airtight container.
Happy baking!
Recipe slightly adapted from Miette
Oh, goodness, Clairellyn, these are absolutely gorgeous! I love meringues and these are so pretty (and patriotic).
Thank you! It was my first time making meringues and I can definitely say it won’t be my last! They were so much fun to make! 🙂
So cute! These would be the perfect 4th of July treat:)
Thank you! I’m glad you liked them! 🙂
I love meringues, and these are beautiful! Visiting from Foodie Friday! Great blog~thanks!
Glad you could stop by and so glad you liked the blog! 🙂
what great festive colors!
Thank you! 🙂
GREAT way to get those stripes into the meringue – and a “healthier” way to have a yummy dessert for the 4th
I’ve been using that technique with frosting for ages and it just now occurred to me to try it with meringues! 🙂 So glad you liked them.
These are super cute! Perfect snacks to celebrate the 4th of July!
Thank you! So glad you liked them! 🙂
I love the color stripes! I’m making a whole lot of meringues for our wedding next month, but I hadn’t realized you could make multi-color meringues. I’ll have to give this technique a try!
Congratulations on your wedding! 🙂 You can do all kinds of things by changing the tip and adding different colors of food coloring down the sides of your wrapped meringues. The same technique works on frosting, just in case you want to make coordinating cupcakes. 😉
These are so cute! I love meringues. Thanks for sharing. Hello from Nifty Thrifty Sunday!
Thanks for stopping by with the sweet comment! 🙂
such a great idea and so beautiful!!
Thank you! 🙂
These are totally awesome! You’re being featured at The Wednesday Roundup this week! 🙂
Wow! Thank you for the feature and for hosting such a fun party each week! Can’t wait to stop by again this week! 🙂
Thank you so much for joining us on The Wednesday Roundup Link Party! You’ve been featured this week! I just pinned this one to our Pinterest board. Be sure to stop by and grab a “Featured” button!
Wow! Thanks for the feature! And thank you for hosting such a fun link party each week! 🙂
4 to 6 hours to bake?
Yes, they bake at such a low temperature it’s more like drying them out than baking them. And the large difference in baking time is because things like size and humidity make a big difference in how long they take to dry out. Hope that clarifies it. 🙂