Home for the Holidays Two-a-day

12/21/12

Well, the end of the world didn’t come.  Hooray!

All of Friday was pretty much devoted to helping my mom prep for their holiday party.  Once breakfast was out of the way (savory oats with nooch, eggs, and avocado) I set to work on cooking, baking, and cooking some more…until 5:30 pm.  Such a slave driver!

I made date nut balls so there was a vegan (and raw) option at the party (aside from the Sabra and veggies). 

In the end, we had a ton of yummy food, which I may post about at a later time, but in keeping with the two-a-day theme I’ll just post one cookie recipe for now.

Candy Striped Peppermint Meringues

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/8 twp peppermint extract
• 12 drops red food coloring

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.  Line baking sheets (I used 2) with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat eggs whites and salt on medium high speed until white and foamy (~1 minute).  Then, while mixer is still running, slowly add sugar (it’s best to add it in sections and wait ~2 minutes between each addition).  Beat until firm peaks form. 

Next add powdered sugar and peppermint extract and beat to blend (~1 minute).

To create candy-stripes, add the food coloring drops to the meringue, but don’t stir it in.  Then scoop the meringue into a pastry bag (or plastic bag with 1/2 inch of the corner cut off). 

Pipe the meringue onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 2 1/2 hours.  Let them cool completely (~1 hour).