Meringues are a light and crunchy naturally gluten-free dessert that melt in your mouth. Better yet? Mine are made with only two ingredients –egg whites and maple syrup.
Meringue cookies are fun, yet elegant, pleasing both young and old; my children and their friends devour them. So does my husband. We’ll be serving my quick and easy Meringues at our Passover Seder, along with my egg-free Macaroons, in order to give everyone with food restrictions loads of options.
If you’re not Jewish, these meringues are also a wonderfully springy, light, and festive Easter dessert.
Meringues
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- ½ cup maple syrup
Instructions
- In a medium pot combine egg whites and maple syrup
- Turn flame on stove to lowest setting possible
- Using a hand blender with whisk attachment, whisk meringues in pot on stove
- Whisk 4-5 minutes total, until stiff glossy peaks form
- Fit a pastry bag with a ⅜-inch round tip (ateco #804) and fill bag with meringue
- Pipe meringue kisses 1-inch in diameter onto parchment paper lined baking sheets
- Bake at 200°F for 2 hours
- Allow to cool for 1 hour
- Serve
Equipment
This meringue cookie recipe is based on the meringue frosting recipe in my first book, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.
If you don’t want to be fussy and mess with a pastry bag you can drop this meringue mixture one large spoonful at a time onto a parchment lined baking sheet. One of the best things about these delicious, melt-in-your mouth meringues is that you don’t need to own a stand mixer to make them, you can make them like I did with a cheap hand mixer using the whisk attachment.
Another note on these gluten-free meringues –I tried making them with honey and they had an overly sweet cloying taste, my entire family preferred the ones I made with maple syrup, in fact, the boys would not eat the meringues made with honey.
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If you’re wondering what to do with all those extra egg whites when you make my Chocolate Pots de Creme, use this Meringue recipe. According to Martha Stewart, meringues can be made 5 days ahead and stored in a cool, dry place at room temperature.
Kristin says
Mine turned out quite watery. I never got the stiff glossy peaks. The mixture is yummy though.
Lily says
I wonder if using flax seed or chia seed would work as a substitute instead of egg, I did , however make it on the stove tonight with egg and maple and I only got 21 cookies dropped off the teaspoon… Mounded ,yes. A great and amazing recipe, thanks for the share!
Eva says
I made them with aquafaba (chickpea brine): worked a treat.
Lisa says
Help! These came together beautifully but now that they are baking the maple syrup is oozing out of the bottom. Same happened when I made the ones with honey by Danielle Walker! Any ideas?
Lorraine says
leave it to someone with no clue, but I did think the beating of the whites over simmering water (double boiler) and for several minutes to stiff and glossy… I made mine large (lazy) with spoondrops they came out well but I could see a little of the maple syrup on their bottoms…
HbW says
Same thing happened to me… First time was perfect, next two times they deflated and the honey oozed out. They were still delicious, but I dont know what happened. :(. Hoping the maple syrup version works better.
Lorraine says
I can only say I finally found a recipe for successful meringue cookies (at least that isn’t loaded with powdered sugar) that holds up. Mine were big (lazy) and 2 hours perfect. Next time I may make them smaller and will check them at about 1.5. Oh I used double boiler (glass bowl on pan) because cord does not reach stove. My trick was to boil water, move onto counter (hot pad) and put in bowl with ingredients in and start whipping until stiff/glossy. Of course the water simmers down. Thanks again…
lorraine says
oops I mean I put onto pan the glass bowl…
Patti says
Every other recipe for meringues directs me to whisk the mixture in a bowl double boiler style, but yours works perfectly just whisking the mixture over direct heat. Is the maple syrup + egg whites the magic formula that can only be done this way? I want to make peppermint meringues but maple syrup would throw off the taste, so I’m wondering if a sugar or honey sub would tolerate the direct heat method. Any idea? Cuz your way is so much easier!
Elana Amsterdam says
Hi Patti,
I have a funny habit when I work on recipes of experimenting to make things as easy as possible. I take shortcuts whenever I can. I believe that the method in this recipe (whisking mixture directly over heat) will work. I use a similar method in a recipe in my first cookbook for making meringue frosting. However, I haven’t tried using this method with a change of ingredients (i.e., honey) so I can’t be 100% certain. If you do try, I hope you’ll stop back by and let us know how it goes :-)
Elana
Michelle @ Leo Sigh says
Love meringues. Used to buy them as a kid back in the UK at a shop near my school. Three large meringues for the equivalent of about 30 cents. Not nowadays :)
Will try these at some point. They look easy to make and look delicious. Thanks!
EllenFitz says
For those with only a stand mixer, KitchenAid gas a water bath attachment that you can add hot or ice water to to warm things up or cool them down. That said, I’d still like to know why we have to heat the mixture & what happens if we don’t. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000SQKPF6?pc_redir=1404316483&robot_redir=1)
Mary says
I wondered about heating the mixture as well, this sounds like the method for making Swiss meringues. Heating would make the syrup less think and perhaps that is useful?
———————————————————————————-
Swiss Meringues
Swiss meringues are made by combining sugar and egg whites and heating them over a double boiler.
To prepare a Swiss meringue, whisk the sugar and egg whites enough to break up the whites, but not so vigorously that they form an airy foam.
The sugar will melt and act as a protective shield against coagulation of the egg whites; heat and whisk constantly until the temperature of the whites reaches 145 degrees F or hotter.
Remove the bowl from the heat, and beat the warm egg whites until they form stiff, glossy peaks.
Misty says
These are amazing!!! So simple and yes, the recipe really does make 50 meringues. I now have Elana to thank for my passover meringue and purim hamantaschen. Thank you!
Franki says
These came out perfect! They did stick to the parchment paper a bit, so I may try greasing it next time. I didn’t have a pastry bag so I put the batter in a ziploc and snipped the corner off, worked perfectly! These are so delicious and easy!
Mia Pritchett says
Ladies
Yes the recipe is correct:). I am making them right now. The 2 egg whites and 1/2 C. Maple volumize greatly with the whipping action. I did not have a whip attachment for my stick blender so I used that on the stove then transferred the batter to my Kitchen Aid with the whip attachment to finish them off.
I do believe the 2 hours is correct. The lower temperature will get the texture of crunchy and chewy that meringues are supposed to be.
I just piped them out using a frosting attachment I use for cupcakes. They are beautiful and mine weren’t completely uniform but I still got 45 meringues. Try these. Just popped them in and set the timer for 2 hours.