Help Us Out!If you love a recipe, be sure to come back and share your ratings. This helps future users, and allows me to continue sharing free recipes! Angela
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 200°F (90°C) - or as low as your oven can go, I know some ovens can only go down to 250°F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper and move your oven racks to the bottom racks in your oven.
Separate your egg whites from your room temperature eggs (if they are not room temp, place your eggs in a glass or bowl of warm tap water for about 5-10 minutes). Be sure when you separate the egg whites that the whites go into a clean, dry bowl. Any water or residue will affect how well your egg whites stiffen into soft peaks.
Place your egg whites into the bowl of your stand mixer, add salt and cream of tartar and use the whisk attachment at medium speed until soft peaks are formed (about 1-2 minutes).
Add the sugar to the egg whites slowly incorporating it into the meringue (you can process your sugar in a food processor by pulsing a few times to make superfine sugar so that all of the sugar melts easily). Once all of the sugar is added and well combined, test the consistency by rubbing between your fingertips to ensure that all of the sugar has melted.
Add eggnog and vanilla paste (or extract) and freshly grated nutmeg. Continue to mix on high speed until stiff peaks are formed, and your meringue is smooth and glossy.
Use a piping bag with a large star piping tip, or a Ziploc baggie (with the corner cut off) and pipe the meringue onto your parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Leave about ½" between each 1-1 ½" sized meringue star.
Place baking sheets into the oven on the lower racks, and bake at 200°F (90°C) for 1 hour 15 minutes. If you need to use a higher baking temperature, reduce the baking time until the outside of the meringues are dry but not changing color, or browning at the bottoms.
When the meringues are dry to the touch, turn off your oven and allow them to cool completely in the oven and preferably overnight.
**To make the 'Gingerbread' meringue cookies shown in the photos with our white eggnog meringue cookies: Follow all instructions but increase the vanilla paste (or extract) to 1 teaspoon and substitute 1 teaspoon of my Homemade German Gingerbread Spice Blend (Lebkuchengewurz) for the ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg.