This Vanilla Bean Candy Cane Meringues Recipe takes a little bit of work to make, but this Christmas Candy Recipe is so tasty that it is worth the effort!
What Are Meringues?
Meringues - also called meringue cookies - are incredibly simple. They are crispy cookies that melt in your mouth, and are made with just two simple ingredients. Meringue cookies are made from whipping egg whites with powdered sugar. From that basic combination, you can add a variety of different ingredients to create different flavors.
Why You'll Love Vanilla Candy Cane Meringues
They're perfect for making for your upcoming holiday parties and also great for gifting to neighbors, coworkers, and of course - a hostess gift! It can be difficult to decide what to give these people in our lives, do we buy them a gift? Do we make something? Just give them a card? Well, a homemade treat is ALWAYS a great idea!
If you enjoy the bright flavors of peppermint, then make some peppermint bark next. They taste fantastic with the
How To Make Chocolate-Dipped Meringues
Meringues are easy for first-time bakers! But to make it even easier for you, I have pictures of each step so you can see how I made them.
Ingredients
Here is a list of things you'll need from the store before you try to make Christmas meringue cookies. All the exact ingredient amounts are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Egg whites
- Confectioners’ sugar - powdered sugar
- Pure vanilla extract or other pure flavoring
- Candy canes or peppermint candies smashed into small pies
- Quality chocolate
More Holiday Desserts
Check out these super delicious Christmas Treat Recipes that I have shared over the years. Of course, this is just a small selection of our Christmas Treat recipes. Just click the Christmas Recipes tab in our FOOD INDEX and they will pop up for you, like our Christmas Pretzel Rolo Snacks Recipe!
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Candy Cane Meringue Steps
All of the steps are listed in the printable recipe card. I listed them here as well, along with some photos of the recipe.
1. Separate Eggs and Let Them Rest
Carefully wash the outside of the eggs with cold water, then separate them, saving the whites (it is easier to separate the yokes and whites when the eggs are cold).
Lightly cover the egg whites and let them rest until they are room temp. This downtime is perfect for prepping the rest of the steps and workspace.
2. Grab Your Tools
Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone oven mat; lightly flouring the paper or mat will sometimes help to make sure they don’t stick once fully baked. Select the tip(s) needed and set up the piping bag.
3. Beat Egg Whites
Once the eggs are at room temp, slowly turn the mixer on to medium and mix until the egg whites become so foamy and frothy that they filled with tiny bubbles that really look like wet foam. This took about 8-10 minutes on medium with our Kitchen-aid stand mixer.
4. Slowly Add Confectioner's Sugar
Very slowly, start to add in the pre-sifted confectioners’ sugar, just a couple of small spoonfuls at a time; you should then wait a minute before adding more. This will roughly take another 6 to 10 minutes. You should quickly start to see a change in consistency; add in your pure vanilla extract or other flavoring.
You can stop mixing once the mixture can hold its shape in a stiff peak (this is easy to see as soon as you turn off the mixer and lift up the whisk attachment on the mixer.
5. Pipe the Meringues
You can now carefully fill the piping bag with the meringue mixture. I like to do this by placing the piping bag in a large, heavy glass that you can fold the outside of the piping bag over on. This allows you to use two hands to fill the bag.
Give the piping bag a quick twist and hold firmly so the meringue will not leak out of the open end of the bag. Once baked, the meringues will only be slightly larger, so you may pipe them fairly close to one another.
6. Bake Them
The overall baking time depends on the size so be careful to be as consistent as possible when piping.
A rough estimate on timing would be as follows:
- 2-inch round meringues will take about 2.5 to 3 hours.
- ¾-inch meringues take about 45 minutes to one hour.
All ovens work differently. Keep a close eye on the temperature; you’ll want the oven to be at 200 degrees for the duration of the baking time. A separate oven thermometer that can stay in might be a great purchase if you have an inconsistent oven or if you are still getting to know yours.
7. Prep the Candy Canes
As the meringues are cooling, smash the candy canes into small pieces, you can use just about anything in your kitchen for this. I wrapped a paper towel around them and smashed them. This kept the little pieces from going everywhere.
Brush the flour off the parchment paper the cookies baked on; you’ll set the dipped meringues back on this to have the chocolate harden.
8. Melt The Chocolate
Follow the package instructions for carefully melting the chocolate until smooth. Hold onto one side of the meringue and dip about halfway into the chocolate. Moving quickly, dip just a few cookies into the chocolate, place them on the tray, and sprinkle with candy cane pieces.
Let the chocolate harden, then store in an air tight container for up to a week.
Best Way To Whip Egg Whites For Meringues
Some suggest hand whisking in a copper bowl is the only way, while others prefer an electric hand mixer; we used our Kitchenaid mixer with very tasty results, less mess, and faster prep time.
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To print this Vanilla Bean Candy Cane Meringues Recipe, simply click the recipe card below!
I know that many people still like to print out recipes and keep them in a recipe binder, or simply have the printed recipe sitting in front of them when it comes time to cook! You can also email this recipe!
Vanilla Bean Candy Cane Meringues Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites
- 1.5 cups confectioners’ sugar
- dash pure vanilla extract
- 4-8 ounces chocolate
- 2-4 candy canes or peppermint candies smashed into small pies
Instructions
- Carefully wash the outside of the eggs with cold water, then separate saving the whites (it is easier to separate the yokes and whites when the eggs are cold).
- Lightly covered the egg whites and let rest until they are room temp. This down time is perfect for prepping the rest of the steps and work space.
- Line a cookie sheet or baking try with parchment paper or a silicone oven mat, lightly flouring the paper or mat will sometimes help to make sure they don’t stick once fully baked. Select the tip(s) needed and set up the piping bag.
- Some suggest hand whisking in a copper bowl is the only way while others prefer an electric hand mixer, we used our Kitchenaid mixer with very tasty results, less mess and faster prep time.
- Once the eggs are at room temp slowly turn the mixer on to medium and mix until the egg whites become so foamy and frothy that they filled with tiny bubbles that really look like wet foam. This took about 8-10 minutes on medium with our Kitchen-aid stand mixer.
- Very slowly start to add in the pre sifted confectioners’ sugar, just a couple small spoonful’s at a time, you should then wait a minute before adding more. This will roughly take another 6 to 10 minutes. You should quickly start to see a change in consistency, add in your pure vanilla extract or other flavoring.
- You can stop mixing once the mixture can hold its shape in a stiff peak (this is easy to see as soon as you turn off the mixer and lift up the whisk attachment on the mixer.
- You can now carefully fill the piping bag with the meringue mixture. I like to do this by placing the piping bag in a large heavy glass that you can fold the outside of the piping bag over on. This allows you to use two hands to fill the bag.
- Give the piping bag a quick twist and hold firmly so the meringue will not leak out of the open end of the bag. Once baked the meringues will only be slightly larger, so you may pipe them fairly close to one another.
- The overall baking time depends on the size so be careful to be as consistent as possible when piping.
- A rough estimate on timing would be as follows:
- A 2 inch round meringue will take about 2.5 to 3 hours.
- ¾ inch meringues take about 45 minutes to one hour.
- All ovens work differently keep a close eye on the temperature, you’ll want the oven to be at 200 degrees for the duration of the baking time. A separate oven thermometer that can stay in might be a great purchase if you have an inconsistent oven or if you are still getting to know yours.
- As the meringues are cooling smash the candy canes into small pieces, you can use just about anything in your kitchen for this. I wrapped paper towel around them and smashed. This kept the little pieces from going everywhere. Brush the flour off the parchment paper they cookies baked on, you’ll set the dipped meringues back on this to have the chocolate harden. Follow the package instructions for carefully melting the chocolate until smooth. Hold onto one side of the meringue and dip about half way into the chocolate. Moving quickly dip just a few cookies into the chocolate, place on the tray and sprinkle with candy cane pieces. Let the chocolate harden then store in an air tight container for up to a week.
Nutrition
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