Meringue Christmas Trees

If your facebook or pinterest pages are anything like mine, I'm sure you've seen the super cute meringue Christmas Trees that seem to be trending. They are adorable, and I love meringues, so I thought I'd give them a try!

The good news, is the ingredients are very simple!

All you need is:
4-5 ROOM TEMP egg whites
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
Green Food Coloring


Now, that's the easy part. The rest isn't necessarily "hard", just very VERY time consuming, so have someone else take the kids and make sure you have a good chunk of free time before you take on this project.
Step 1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Step 2. Combine egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar in a large bowl (preferably a stainless steel one!)

Step 3. Simmer about 2 cups of water. Holding the bowl above the simmering water (don't set it directly on the pot, you don't want to cook the eggs), constantly whisk the mixture until the sugar dissolves into the egg.

Step 4. Turn off the simmering water and begin beating the eggs with a hand mixer on medium low speed. The egg mixture will turn white, at this point, add in the food coloring.  Continue beating as you add the color, and add only a few drops at a time to prevent overloading the egg mix. Add color until you have reached your desired shade of green.

Step 5. Increase the speed on your mixer, and commit to this for the long haul. You'll want to keep beating the eggs until it has stiffened enough that stiff, but curled peaks hold when the beaters or a spoon is dipped and removed (This takes a LONG time! I did a double batch last night and I was beating for 15-20 minutes before it reached the consistency I was looking for). Don't quit early!

Step 6. Spoon the batter into a piping bag with the tip of your choice and pipe the batter onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
Step 7. If you want to add any sprinkles for decoration, do so now.
Step 8. Bake cookies at 200 degrees for 2 hours or until they no longer stick to your finger when touched and they have slightly browned on the bottom.

Step 9. Turn off the oven and crack it open. Leave the cookies in the oven to allow them to cool gradually.

These should be stored in an airtight container, and I'm told they can be frozen and eaten without having to defrost them but I haven't tried that myself yet!

These are definitely a cute treat, and if you like meringues they taste great! Do take note of the time commitment in making them though, and be sure you have the time you'll need to complete all steps!

Happy Beating :)