Hi baking friends!
I’ve used a hell of a lot of aquafaba in all my baking so I thought I would dial it back a bit and give you a really easy simple recipe to practice your aquafaba skills with! If you can make these whimsical little shapes then you’ll have no problem mastering vegan pavlova, dacquoise, etc.!
These meringue cookies are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee on a rainy day or they would be a great addition to a cute birthday cake!
This recipe only requires 3 ingredients: aquafaba, icing sugar and lemon juice.
If you’re looking to make more sophisticated meringue shapes this is a good base recipe that you can use to get started. Feel free to add vanilla extract or other flavourings once you’re confident with the base recipe.
Despite the simple recipe, I’ve given a lot of detail in the recipe so as to avoid easy mistakes. Enjoy!!
Vegan Meringue Cookies
These simple delicious vegan meringue cookies are easily one of my favourites because of its simplicity of preparation and they are so fun to make!
Ingredients
- 2 cans of 400ml chickpeas (unsalted)
- 200g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- gel food colouring (yellow, black, red)
Directions
- Step 1 Pour the contents of the cans of chickpeas into a measuring cup through a sieve to collect the liquid (aquafaba). You will need at least 250ml and no more than 300ml.
- Step 2 Line a baking tray with parchment and pre-heat the oven to 80C (175F).
- Step 3 Pour the aquafaba into a pan and use a low heat to bring the liquid to a simmer. Keep stirring every few minutes and reduce the liquid for 15 minutes in total. We are aiming to reduce the liquid by half to 120-150ml.
- Step 4 Once reduced, pour it into a measuring cup to check it has been reduced to 120ml (a hot liquid will let off some steam so it’s good to aim for 150ml and the liquid will reduce further while it cools).
- Step 5 Leave to cool for 1 hour. Then place in the fridge covered with clingfilm/lid for a further 30 mins.
- Step 6 Once cool, put the aquafaba in a stand mixer bowl and beat on medium for 10 minutes. Reduced aquafaba should whip up exceptionally quickly (like egg whites) as they have a much lower water content and higher protein %.
- Step 7 Once you reach firm peaks (hawk’s beak), start sieving in the icing sugar one spoon at a time. Then allow the meringue to whip up for a further 3 minutes.
- Step 8 You might notice at this point that the sugar has made the meringue somewhat heavier and droopy. It will look thick but with no sign of stiff peaks. This is where the lemon juice comes in.
- Step 9 Add the lemon juice a little at a time while the meringue whips and you should see the meringue firm up. If the meringue is still a little droopy after 1tbsp of lemon juice, add a little more.
- Step 10 Once a stiff meringue is reached, spoon 1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl and add 2 drops of yellow food colouring.
- Step 11 Reserve 1/6th of the white meringue for making other colours (red cheeks, black eyes and mouth, etc.)
- Step 12 Fit two piping bags with circular 10mm tips or similar. These will be for piping the “body” of the meringue cookies. Add the white meringue to one bag and the yellow to the other. Reserve some of the yellow meringue and add it to a much smaller piping bag with a small nozzle to pipe “sun rays”.
- Step 13 Pipe the shapes as you please. See my photos for reference.
- Step 14 Mix some red into the reserved white meringue and pipe “cheeks” on all the meringue cookies.
- Step 15 Put the meringues in the oven to dehydrate for 2 hours. Use all leftover meringue to make pavlovas or other fun shapes!
- Step 16 After 2 hours, leave the cookies to cool.
- Step 17 Mix the black gel colouring with a small amount of vodka and draw on eyes and mouths with a toothpick or a small paintbrush.
- Step 18 Serve!
SO CUTEE!!!