RECIPE ~ Meringue Cups

Meringue cups are a great, lighter alternative for dessert. They are so easy to make. You don’t even need a pastry bag; you can just use a large Ziplock  to pipe them onto a pan. It’s hard to believe how few ingredients are required:

• 1 cup egg whites
• Pinch salt
• 2 cups sugar

Set the oven to 200 degrees. Add the egg whites to your mixer. Add a pinch of salt and whip the eggs on medium speed until they are foamy. Once they are foamy, start adding the sugar very slowly. Increase the blender speed to high as you do so. Continue to beat the meringue until it forms peaks. Stiff peaks are okay for sea level, but medium peaks are preferred for altitude (for those of us in Denver).

Use a pastry bag to pipe out the meringue (on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet) into rounds that are about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.  If you add an additional circle on top, then you have meringue cups. Or, clip the end off a large Ziplock and use it to pipe the meringue.

Bake the meringue for 1 1/2 hours at 200 degrees. When 1 1/2 hours is up, turn the oven off and leave the meringue in the oven until the oven is cool. You will have about 12 meringue cups.

Meringue cups in the oven.

You can make less meringue, but if you are using a Kitchen Aid mixer, you will need to make this much or else the whisk will not come into contact with the eggs. You can place the dried, cooled meringues in a Ziplock bag with a paper towel inside and store them for a day or so. Once the meringues are completely cool, they should be hard.

Cooled and ready for some fruit!

You can serve meringue cups with any kind of macerated fruit. I made a light bananas foster and served them over the meringue cups instead of ice cream, for a lower-calorie dessert.