I love you meringues

 

 Valentine’s Day is a wonderful time to remind those around you that you love them.   One activity I enjoy doing with my girls is cooking.  For this Valentines holiday I invited my girls to help me make meringue letters for my them to give to their Daddy.  Not only are these nice to look at, but they are also very yummy to eat.  This recipe came from a recipe book Costco gave out. 

 

To get started you need a couple of cute helpers & these items:

Parchment paper

6 Large egg whites

Pinch of salt

1 ½ teaspoons cream of tarter

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 ½ cups sugar

Pastry bag with a large flower tip

4-6 ounces jelly beans

 

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

 

In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar with an electric beater until soft peaks form.  With the beater running, add almond extract and then gradually add sugar.  Beat until stiff and glossy.

 Notice how shiny it got.

 Spoon Meringue into the pastry bag.  Pipe meringue onto the parchment-lined baking sheet in the letters you want.  

 

Select jelly beans you want to use and gently press the jelly beans into the sides of the meringues. 

 

Bake for 2 ½ hours, or until hard. The meringues can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in an airtight container.  Makes 10-12 (4” letters).   

 

They turned out very cute and the girls loved help make them.  Their favorite part of course was testing the jelly beans out to make sure they were yummy enough to put on the letters.  

 My official taste-tester approved.