Rainbow Meringue

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a really fun recipe that is kid friendly, colorful and simple. I love including my children when cooking or baking therapeutically. This is the time where I live in the moment while doing what I love, with the people I love.

I believe sharing different aspects of your personality can be reflected by the food you create. At least that is my experience.


Ingredients:

Egg whites
Caster sugar (bakers sugar)
Cream of tartar
Extract (vanilla etc)

Food coloring ( I suggest food gels)


For every 2 egg whites, you need 1/4 of sugar and 1/8 tbs of cream of tartar. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

When egg whites are at room temperature, take your stand or hand mixer, and at a low speed, beat egg whites & cream of tartar until foamy. Then gradually add in sugar, at medium high speed. Add in vanilla. When your peaks are glossy, stiff, and the sugar is dissolved, you're done.

What is cream of tartar, and why is it needed for meringue?  Cream of tartar, or potassium bitartrate, is a  sediment that occurs by means of crystallization during wine fermentation. It is derived from tartaric acid, which is found in grapes, and it does regulate the Ph in the fermentation process. It is harvested from wine barrels in it's crystallized form, and I believe then turned into a powder. I have no idea who has that job, but it must be tedious!

It is an important ingredient for meringue, because of its Ph, which is around 3, meaning pretty acidic, it is able to prevent the sugar from crystallizing during the cooking process, while keeping egg whites stable. Sugar always competes with protein, so without the acid in its powdered form, your meringue quickly turns into a weeping mess. If you're lucky enough to get your combative meringue into the oven, the sugar will win the battle by crystallizing.

So boom! Now ya know! back to the recipe! ;D


We did a bit of experimentation when trying to come up with fun colors for our meringue. So this is what we ended up doing:

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For each color used, we used a chopstick to swirl in our colors. I don't recommend using fancy chopsticks, since food gel is notorious for staining the hell out of everything nice. I bought a pack of these cute pink, plastic chopsticks in the Asian district in my city. They were $2 for like 10 pair.

Simply drag your coloring by means of chopstick, around gently, and slowly your meringue. Alternate colors. Have paper towels near by. This can get messy, especially with little ones helping out. It's SO much fun though.

Then when you have your pretty colors mixed and swirled, gently With a spoon, gently scoop the top of your pretty meringue, and drop it onto a parchment lined sheet pan.




Set your oven to 200 F ( 93 C) Low and slow. This is going to take some time if you want your meringue to maintain it's glossy, white finish. To prevent too much coloring on the bottom, you can use the double sheet tray. It may take up to an hour to get these cookies done. Don't panic though. Check on them every so often, but please for the love of the universe do not open and close your oven the entire time. Your meringue will take forever to cook, and because of the crazy temperature changes, you're going to cause shrinkage. Keep your timer handy.

If your little ones are helping out, let them go a little crazy. I wanted to use a piping bag, just to test everything out, but I'm fresh out of piping bags, and I am going to assume that it would be a ridiculous mess. I am willing to give it a shot in the future though, so if it all works out some how, I'll take back everything I said! I know there is a way to do it. There has to be!