This recipe is so easy to remember. If you want to double or triple the recipe, just remember that the amount of the icing sugar is always twice as the egg whites.
SUMIKKO GURASHI MERINGUE COOKIES
Ingredients
Instructions
This process will take about 8-10 minutes.Notes
Make sure that the bowl and beater that you are using to beat your meringue is completely grease and moisture-free. Any moisture can ruin your meringues.
Crack your eggs in a separate bowl when separating the whites. Even a tiny bit of yolk can also ruin your meringues, so crack each egg in a small bowl before adding it to the bowl that you will be mixing the meringue batter in.
Do not whisk the meringue on high speed with an electric mixer. This will form an airy foam with lots of large air bubbles. When baked, these large masses of air have a greater ability to expand than smaller air bubbles, causing the mixture to rise, spread and crack unevenly.
Don’t stop until you get stiff peaks. The batter will take several minutes, at least, of beating to achieve stiff peaks, but keep going. It will increase in volume and be very thick and glossy — that’s what you’re looking for!
Don’t over-beat your batter, either! Once you hit stiff peaks, stop! You can stir in your extract and any food coloring at this point, but don’t push it because over-beating the batter is just as bad as not beating it enough.
Do not bake it at too high temperature. The intense heat will cause the air bubbles to expand more efficiently, causing the mixture to rise, spread and crack.
You can store the meringues at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. Line parchment paper between each layer of meringues.
Video recipe
These information is for your guidance of what colour you will need for all the characters and details.
FOR BODY (big round tip):
- White (Shirokuma head)
- Soft blue (Tokage head)
- Soft Yellow (Neko head)
- Soft Green (Penguin head)
FOR DETAILS (small round tip):
- White (ears, hands for Shirokuma and nose for Neko)
- Soft blue (hands and fins for Tokage)
- Soft yellow (ears and hands for Neko)
- Soft green (hands for Penguin)
- Soft pink (ears for Shirokuma
- Brown (nose for Shirokuma)
- Yellow (mouth for Penguin)
- Load the meringue batter into a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and a ziplock bag works too.
- Line the baking tray with a parchment paper.
- Then to pipe the meringue, start out by creating a round shape for each character (4 pieces for each character). And then adding other details.
- Bake these off at 180 degress Farenheit (80 degress Celcious) for about 2 hours.
- Once the meringue have come out from the oven, let it cool completely on the cooling rack.
- Create the final details. I used Americolor food gel colouring mixed with vodka (rhum or lemon or vanilla extract will works too), or you can use food decorating pen or edible pen.
*You may substitute different extracts, if I’m adding a different flavor I usually like to still keep the vanilla but cut it down to 1/2 teaspoon, then add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of the extract of choice. Be careful as some extracts (like Peppermint) are very strong, and you don’t want to use too much!
