These maple meringue kisses are delightfully crunchy and sweet! Though super easy to make, they will ask for a few hours of your ovens time. To get the that “delightful” promised crunch, meringues have to bake for about two hours at a very low temp and then sit in the cooling oven for about another 2-3 hours more.
I’ve found that humid days take longer than dry days to get a nice crisp texture. Yesterday was pretty dry here in Texas so these took me about 3 1/2 hours total oven time. You want to be sure they are completely dried out before removing from the oven. Any humidity left in them will cause them to soften and weep over time. Personally I find they are best eaten immediately. After all, isn’t that why I made them? However, if you are more inclined toward moderation than I, you could store them in an airtight container for a few days.
Maple Meringue Kisses w/Raspberry Frosting
Ingredients: Makes about 45 kisses
2 large egg whites
Optional: pinch cream of tartar or squeeze of lemon (to stabilize the meringue especially on a humid day)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup maple sugar (Get it Here)
Note: Essentially meringues are made up of 1/4 cup sugar to 1 large egg white. This makes it easy to halve or double the recipe as needed.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl beat the egg whites on a medium- low speed till just foamy. Add the salt and optional cream of tartar. Continue to beat at a medium-high speed until soft peaks form. (Gently beating the egg whites at first and then slowly increasing the speed over time will help create a nice stable, high volume meringue)
3. Slowly add the sugar, or add it in stages if using a hand held mixer then increase the speed to high until they become stiff and glossy.
4. Transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. On the prepared baking sheets, pipe out little ‘kisses’ about the size of a quarter. They can be quite close to each other as they do not expand when baked. Alternatively you could drop spoonfuls of meringue on to the parchment paper.
5. Bake in the oven for about 2 hours. Turn off the heat and allow the meringues to rest in the oven with the door closed for another 2-3 hours more or until crunchy all the way through. Overnight works well too.
6. Remove from oven (if meringues are still warm allow to cool). Store in an airtight container.
Enjoy them just as they are or sandwich two kisses with THIS Dairy Free Raspberry Frosting!
Makes about 45 kisses. Amounts will vary depending on the size of meringues you make.
Looks delicious! What about using a dehydrator? Mine can be turned up to 200 (I think). Will have to experiment with that! Thanks for sharing and great photography.
I think it would work wonderfully! If I had one i'd totally try but myself.
These are so cute! I wonder if coconut sugar would work the same. I may have to try!
Hey! this recipe is perfect! Did it twice with maple sugar and it was perfect! turn out almost 100 little kisses.(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151669623227049&set=pb.602867048.-2207520000.1369842512.&type=3&theater)
However when trying this with coconut sugar, once the coconut sugar is added to the beaten eggs (the first teaspoon) it "crashes" and turn into watery thingi.. don't know why!
but with maple its soo good, thank you very much!!
I m guessing the moisture content in the coconut sugar is higher then.
Hey! They look great, really cute. I just have one question. Do you bake them for two hours on 220 degrees or do you reduce the heat after a while? Or do you bake them with oven door open?Because 220 C seems a bit to hot. I would really like to make them, so sorry about all of those questions.
That's because it's Fahrenheit. Yes, 220 celsius would be way to hot!
"Inclined toward moderation"
Doesn't describe me at all! These look fantastic and my hubby could even eat them with his restrictions! Thanks for the recipe…
These are beautiful! You should open a bakery!
Those are so cute and look so yummy!
I've not had success making meringue cookies recently. It was a recipe using honey as the sweetener (The Nourished Kitchen recipe). I did everything exactly as called for and they whipped beautifully. The issue is that they never hardened after baking, they remained sticky. Note, it was a warm and dry few days, not humid. I even tried baking them longer and then rebaking them twice.
The author's and other poster's didn't seem to have this problem. I asked the author if she used a gas oven and that was a YES. However I used an electric oven.
In your experience, do you think that the type of oven was the problem, or was it a different problem?
Next I will try making yours, but I was really hoping to use honey, since that's my favorite sweetener. Any thoughts? Note, the honey had crystallized, but during the heating stage is blended smoothly with the other ingredients and the "batter" was smooth as silk, not grainy, so I didn't consider this to be the problem, but maybe it was?