Ghost Meringues

Halloween is coming!!
I am excited for halloween. Not because of the candies since we don’t celebrate halloween here in Indonesia, but I’ve always love to go with a theme, for example if it’s summer, I’ll make a super summer dessert, or if it’s valentine I’ll paint my nails with all those pink-red-white-purple colour and with hearts and all…
So I am excited for Halloween for all the Halloween stuff I’m gonna bake. This is one of them. Easy ghost meringues.

I made a lot of pastry cream a few weeks back and I end up with loads of egg whites. And so I decided to make meringues, since halloween is coming, why not make something ghostly?

This sweet treat is simple. The ingredients are just egg whites and sugar. I adapted this recipe from the meringue girls and the quantity is just super easy to remember. It is 1 part egg whites to 2 parts sugar. So I would suggest you weighing the egg whites first then just multiply by 2.

Next is to incorporate the sugar with the egg whites and beat them away!

This is just a basic recipe of making meringue. You can apply this on making macarons, the top of lemon meringue pie, or just any other meringue desserts really.

Here are some important notes you need to keep in mind when making meringue:
1. Be sure that the bowl and the whisk you’re going to use is grease and water free. Be sure to wipe the bowl clean and to be safe, wipe the bowl and whisk with some vinegar to get rid of any invisible grease left in the bowl.
2. Do not use plastic bowl. It might works but to be sure, use aluminium or even better, copper instead. Plastic bowls usually traps oil so it is harder to get rid of the grease that will prevent the egg whites to get fluffy. Aluminium is great but often times that it gives the meringue a grey tinge. Copper would work best but it is quite expensive.
3. Make sure there are NO YOLKS even the slightest little drop of it. This will also prevent the egg whites from whipping up.
4. Heat the sugar before adding it to the egg whites. This way the sugar will dissolve faster and no gritty meringue. Just put the sugar on a grease proof paper and pop it in the oven with the temperature of 200c for 5 minutes until the edges starting to melt.

That’s about it! Now let’s get whipping!

Whip them until all the sugar has dissolved and the egg whites has reached a stiff peaks.

Put them in a pipping bag with a round tip.

I love to use this hack of putting the pastry bag into a glass rather than having one hand holding them and the other scooping.

Now pipe the meringues into a ghost shape! Just pipe them close to the pan then pull up as you squeeze. Then just draw the faces with food colouring. Or if you want, bake them first then draw the faces with black coloured royal icing.

Boo!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Trick or treats? 🎃

Ghost meringues recipe
Adapted from meringue girls recipe.

Ingredients:
• 30g egg whites (around 1 large egg)
• 60g sugar
• Black food coloring or black royal icing

How to make:
1) Spread the sugar evenly on a parchment paper then heat it on a 200°C or 400°F for about 5 minutes until the edges of the sugar begins to melt.
2) Whip the egg whites into soft peaks then start adding the sugar little by little. Beat until stiff peaks (when you pull the beater, the egg white peaks stays standing ) and all the sugar has dissolved (when you rub the mixture between your finger there are no more gritty bits).
3) Put the egg whites into a pipping bag with a round tip, then start piping the ghost on a parchment paper by squeezing quite close to the pan and pulling up as you go.
4) (optional) draw the faces of the ghost with black food coloring.
5) Bake at 130°C or 270°F for about an hour (basically just drying them. They are done when they can easily be pulled off from the sheets).
6) (optional) once cooled, draw the faces with black royal icing.