I have another killer holiday recipe for you guys – vegan pumpkin meringues! Made with aquafaba!!
These meringues go perfectly with a pumpkin spiced coffee on a rainy day or as garnishes on a delicious chocolate cake! They are perfect to make this time of year because there is a lot less humidity, which is the nemesis of meringue!
The technique takes a small amount of practice, and a fairly long time in the oven, but I’ll walk you through all the steps so that you can make your own perfect vegan meringues. These meringues only require 4 ingredients – aquafaba, sugar, cream of tartar (or lemon juice) and food colouring!
How long do meringue cookies last?
These cookies will last up to 2 weeks kept in an airtight container at room temperature. I have had them last as long as 1 – 2 months but it’s preferable to eat them sooner.
How do you know when the meringues are done?
A gentle nudge of the meringue in the oven should reveal if they are ready. Ideally we are looking for them to lift off the mat with ease. Don’t forget to let them cool completely before taking them out the oven!
Top tips for vegan meringue:
- Wipe down your mixing bowl with white vinegar before whipping up aquafaba. Not only does this do a good job of cleaning the bowl, the meringue benefits from the acidity found in the vinegar.
- To add the cream of tartar, take a small amount of aquafaba and place in a separate bowl with the cream of tartar. Whisk vigorously and then add back into the larger bowl. By mixing it in a separate bowl, it’s a lot easier to get it to fully blend into the liquid instead of floating around in chunks.
- Be conservative with any flavourings. Vegan meringue is water-based and any additional hydration will weaken the meringue. This is why we prefer cream of tartar over lemon juice or white vinegar (both strong acids that can be used as subs if necessary).
- As mentioned above, once the meringues are baked, turn the oven off and let them cool completely. This prevents cracking and will make sure they are super crisp and dry.
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!
For this recipe you’ll need:
- at least 2 piping bags – if you prefer not to use silicon or fabric bags please do use biodegradable or compostable piping bags!
- electric whisk or stand mixer
- silicone mat or parchment paper
- accurate scales to weigh aquafaba after simmering
Vegan Pumpkin Meringues
Whimsical yet tasty vegan pumpkin meringue cookies! Crunchy on the outside yet soft on the inside, these delicious treats just melt in your mouth!
Ingredients
- 2 cans of 400ml chickpeas (unsalted)
- 200g icing sugar
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- gel food colouring (orange and green)
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 350ml.
- Step 2 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 3 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 4 Leave to cool for 1 hour. Then place in the fridge covered with clingfilm/lid for a further 30 mins.
- Step 5 Line a baking tray with parchment and pre-heat the oven to 90C (194F).
- Step 6 Once cool, put the aquafaba in a stand mixer bowl with the cream of tartar and beat on medium for 10 minutes.
- Step 7 Once you reach soft peaks, 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 Once a stiff meringue is reached, spoon 1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl and add 2 drops of green food colouring. Add 2 drops of orange food colouring to the remaining meringue.
- Step 9 Fit two piping bags with 1 circular 10mm tip and 1 smaller 5mm tip or similar. These will be for piping the “body” and the “stalk” of the pumpkin cookies, respectively. Add the green meringue to the bag with the smaller tip and the orange to the other.
- Step 10 Pipe one large spherical blog with the orange meringue and then careful pipe stripes of meringue upwards around the body to create a pumpkin like effect. Alternatively, use a toothpick to draw lines onto a single sphere of meringue.
- Step 11 Put the meringues in the oven to dehydrate for 2 hours. Use all leftover meringue to make pavlovas or other fun shapes!
- Step 12 After 2 hours, leave the cookies to cool.
- Step 13 Serve!
Hi Tom! I need your help. I see myself as quite an experienced baker but meringue cookies (and surprisingly to a lesser extent macarons) have been my nemesis so far. The problem is that my cookies always become hollow, resulting in the inside being overly sticky and not very pleasant to eat and the bottom being sticky on the baking parchment. Also my macarons sometimes have the problem of becoming hollow. Do you have any idea what may cause this? I reduce my aquafaba by half till it has the egg white like consistency and I try not to beat the aquafaba longer than necessary to reach stiff peaks as I’ve read that this might be the cause?
I’d be very happy if you’d have any clue what I’m doing wrong!
Hi Lex! Hollowness is a bit of a tricky one as I believe it’s one of the unique symptoms of vegan meringue over their egg white counterparts. Overwhipping can definitely be a cause but I don’t usually believe that’s the case for aquafaba because it can’t really be “overwhipped” like egg whites. I spoke to a pastry chef friend of mine and in non-vegan baking, hollow meringues or macarons is often caused by contamination in the mixing process (i.e. if bowls and utensils aren’t thoroughly cleaned with soap and then wiped down with lemon juice or vinegar). Let me send you some more thoughts on Instagram!
Hi ! I’d like to know more about the mixing with the gel colouring 🙂 I’ve never used food colouring before, and I don’t know how well they mix, especially the gel ones. Do you put the aquafaba back into the mixer with the color, or do you mix it manually?
Thanks for the hit 🙂
Hi Emi! Thanks for checking out my recipe. So gel food colourings are usually fairly viscous but will still pour out of the bottle so you can just add 1 or 2 drops directly from the bottle into the aquafaba as it whips up! It’s usually preferable to add it when the mix is already a bright white so you can see how the final colour is going to turn out! Water based colourings aren’t as desirable because they have a much higher water content and can deflate meringue if you add too much! Fat-based colourings are a no-go as they completely deflate meringue every time. Hope that helps!!