I must confess that I’m not a fan of meringue. Never have been and probably never will be. So leave it to Martha Stewart and her talented staff of recipe developers to entice me into trying my hand at making these beauties. Lightly flavored with orange zest and vanilla bean, they are a meringue lovers dream. What got me interested was this striping technique. It’s pure genius and works like a charm. Like magic really.
The technique involves using a small paint brush to make 3 vertical stripes inside a pastry bag with food color gel or paste. You can get creative by trying yellow with lemon zest, green with lime, or red with peppermint. The combinations are endless. I wonder what the effect would be if you painted each stripe a different color? Hmmm…
Here’s what you’ll need:
18 inch disposable pastry bag
Small paint brush
Food color gel or paste
#805 pastry tip or any tip with a plain round 7/16″ opening
Tall glass for resting the pastry bag
 |
 |
If you look closely, you can see the specks of vanilla bean
| Creamsicle Meringues |
|
- 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- pinch of salt
- large pinch of cream of tartar
- 1 t. finely grated fresh orange zest
- orange gel-paste food coloring
- Preheat oven to 200F
- Combine egg whites, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds in a heatproof bowl.
- Set bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until the sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes.
- Add salt and cream of tartar
- Beat with a mixer on medium high speed until stiff and glossy peaks form
- Meringue should be almost cool, about 7 minutes
- Beat in zest
- Using a small paintbrush, paint 3 vertical stripes of food coloring inside pastry bag fitted with # 805 round tip
- Fill bag with meringue and pipe 1 inch circular shapes on 2 parchment lined baking sheets
- Apply less pressure to pastry bag as you finish, and swirl the tip off in a circular motion
- Bake until crisp on the outside but soft on the inside
- Martha Stewarts recipe recommends 1 hour 15 minutes but I needed to 2 hours
- Let cool completely and store in an airtight container
Love your photos!
lovely!!! so summer looking!
Will try, as my kids LOVE when I make ‘meringhe con la panna’
They are so much fun to make Paola! Let me know how you like them. Happy summer to you!
Those are gorgeous and I am going to add them to my Mouth Watering Mondays post at http://www.noshingwiththenolands.com this coming Monday. Cheers, Tara
That’s wonderful Tara! I hope you enjoy them.
What a great idea! Meringues are my favorite party snack!
I just had some time to look at your new site and I LOVE it! I really like the colors, the photos are incredible, and I like the way the recipes are listed. Your “about” description and photo are fun! I am really enjoying watching your blog evolve.
I appreciate your nice comments Jennifer!
My meringue turned back to liquid when i added the zest! What did I do wrong?
A few questions come to mind. When you separated the eggs, were the whites completely yolk free? Did you add the cream of tartar, and did you beat the whites long enough? You can email me at kathy@playinwithmyfood.com