Vanilla Meringues

It's been a while since I last baked anything, so today I got the courage to try a new recipe I'd been eying for some time: vanilla meringues. I didn't want to spend the whole day working on a Michelangelo-level dessert, so I gathered these ingredients that are, usually, in everyone's home and started mixing.

Why I even thought of making these, besides the fact that they are easy to make? Well, they're very light. They're soft and kind of innocent. They're also pretty hard on the outside and very soft and marshmallow-y on the inside. Didn't I say that yet: perfect!

I'd love if you gave me some feedback in case you decide to try them!

Ingredients

230 g of extra fine sugar

3 egg whites (you should save the yolks for other recipes)

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tbs of vanilla extract (or more if you want an even more pungent taste)

Recipe

The recipe is probably the simplest. Ever.

Preheat your oven at its lowest.

In a big bowl add the 3 egg whites, the vanilla extract, the salt and the baking soda. Start whisking, fast and furious. Or go for the easy (and normal) way: use a mixer. Mix until you get from Stage 1 to Stage 2. If you flip the bowl and it doesn't even move, it's done. It's now time to add the sugar, one spoon at a time. To see if the batter is perfectly mixed, get some of it between two of your fingers. If can still feel the sugar, mix some more.When it's done, you are going to get a very shiny mixture. That is the meringue mixture. Simple as that.

The next step is to put baking sheet in the pan that you are going to use. Then put the mixture into a pipping bag and create little blobs on the tray. Or you can use a spoon. It's up to you.

Place it in the oven for 60 minutes, with the door a little bit open. After 30 minutes, reverse the tray, so all of the meringues get the same amount of heat.

The secret with these little pieces of heaven is that they don't bake, they dry. Remember that and you'll get the perfect ones.

Result

Some extra experimenting

With some left-over mixtures, I decided to experiment. I added some peppermint extract and some green food coloring. Plus the sprinkles, to give them a funny effect. Thing is, it kind of ruined what I had previously attained. So, important piece of advice: if you plan on coloring your meringues, add the food coloring with the egg-whites is it's liquid, or with the sugar if it's powder!