Rainbow Meringues

 

 

 

 

 

This is what happens when I have leftover egg whites... and too much time on my hands.

 

 

Serve these little minarets from Unicornland with freshly whipped vanilla cream and fresh raspberries for the raspberry ones and freshly whipped cream with passionfruit pulp swirled through for the lemon ones... Or you could just put them on a cake stand and admire them for hours. I'd totally get you if you did.



 

 



Rainbow Meringues
adapted from here
Makes about 24

For the Meringues:
4 egg whites, at room temperature
225g caster sugar

For Lemon Meringues:
Finely grated zest of one lemon
Yellow food dye

For the Raspberry Meringues:
1 tablespoon freeze dried raspberry powder
Red food dye

Make the Meringues:
Preheat the oven to 140C. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Set aside.

Take two disposable piping bags and turn them inside-out. Use a wet paintbrush to paint stripes from the tips of the bags to half way down toward the openings, using yellow food dye for one and red food dye for the other. Turn the bags right-side-round, snip off the ends and drop in a large piping tip in each. Put the prepared bags, tip down, into two large drinking glasses ready to be filled. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whisking well continuously. Once all the sugar has been incorporated, it should be thick and glossy and should not be gritty when you rub some of the mixture between your forefinger and thumb. If you can still feel grains of sugar, keep whisking until it is smooth.

Spoon the meringue mixture evenly into two bowls. Fold the lemon zest into one and the freeze dried raspberries into the other. Spoon the meringue into the prepared piping bags, yellow for the lemon mixture and red for the raspberry mixture. Twist the top of the bags and secure them with rubber bands to prevent the mixture from being squeezed out the tops.

Pipe even-sized dollops of the mixture onto the prepared baking trays. Hold the tip of the piping bag about 2cm vertically above the tray. Squeeze slowly lifting the bag as you go. Make your meringues about 6cm wide. As you lift the piping bag, push down a little on the mixture then pull the tip away to form a peak. Leave enough room between the meringues to that they can spread a little during baking.

Bake for 1 hour, turning the oven temperature down to 120C and rotating the pans for the last 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks until completely cool.