Pro tips:
1)clean your mixing bowl and whisk with either lemon juice or vinegar, this ensures that there is absolutely no left over fats (butter, egg yolk, cream etc from previous baking) in them.
2)Also, smear meringue batter on the 4 corners of your tray before placing the parchment as this sticks it in place while you pipe the meringues onto it.
Preheat oven to 100 degrees Celcius or 290 degrees Farenheit
Ingredients
Egg whites (room temp) from 4 large eggs
Granulated Sugar (preferably fine) - 1 1/4 cup
Cream or tartar - 1/4 tsp
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Food colour of choice (optional)
Method:
In a stand mixer (you can also use an electric hand-held one, I would not advise doing it by hand unless you have extreme patience and extra strong arms) Whisk egg whites to soft peaks, add in cream of tartar, followed by sugar which you add in 1 tsp at a time, this is essential to achieve the glossy finish you are after; add in vanilla and continue whisking until there are no more sugar crystals (you can tell by rubbing between your clean thumb and index finger). Use piping bag fitted with the tip of choice, using a narrow brush, brush lines of the desired colour in bag and add your meringe batter. Pipe onto parchment lined baking tray and bake for 1 hour, turn off the oven and let sit in oven for a further 2 hours to dry and voila! yummy, light and crisp meringues are ready to eat. These are so versatile and can be also enjoyed as a snack on their own. Let me know how yours turns out.
