Espresso Meringues
With this Dalgona coffee craze sweeping the internet, I was looking for a snack to mirror the foamy coffee flavor, while not being a heavy pastry or flour-y cookie. I’ve made French Meringue cookies before, but with a lemon zest. The result was a melty cookie puff that had sweet lemon overtones. Soooooo if lemon zest worked, why not espresso powder?
Espresso Meringues
Serving: 20-30 meringues
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Cooling time: 2-3 hours
Total time: 3-4 hours 15 minutes
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup or 187 mL white granulated sugar
1 tbsp (tablespoon) or 15 mL instant coffee powder
4 egg whites at room temperature
1 tsp (teaspoon) or 5 mL vanilla extract
¼ tsp (teaspoon) or 1 mL cream of tartar
PREPARATIONS
Preheat the oven to 250°F ( 120°C ) with your racks at the center.
In a food processor or blender with a metal blade, process all the sugar and coffee powder until the texture of the sugar becomes very fine.
With a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites and vanilla extract at medium speed until very frothy.
Add cream of tartar to the egg whites’ mixture and continue beating at medium speed until soft peaks form.
Increase mixer speed to high and gradually add the sugar/coffee mixture.
Continue beating until soft peaks formed - the mixture should have a glossy sheen.
Prepare non stick cookie sheets or line regular cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Fill the mixture in a pastry bag fitted with any large tip.
Hold your pastry bag upright over the cookie sheet and squeeze out meringue - you should leave the pastry tip buried in meringue until you have piped out a round about 1 1/2" ( 3,50 cm ) in diameter than lift it up and stop squeezing.
Leave 1" ( 2.25 cm ) between each meringue.
Bake the meringue for 1 hour without opening the oven door.
After 1 hour, turn off the oven and let meringues dry in oven for 2-3 hours without opening the oven door. (After the first hour, it's okay to peek one time … BUT JUST ONCE!!)
ADVICES & SUBSTITUTIONS
If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can take a 1 gallon ( 4 L ) freezer bag and fill with the mixture. Then cut a hole in a corner about 1/4’’ in diameter. This makes a fine single-use pastry bag!
If you don’t have a pastry bag or freezer bags, you can measure out a tablespoon of the meringue mixture and dollop it directly onto the parchment paper/non-stick sheet. Leave about 2 ‘‘ ( 5 cm ) between each meringue.
