Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Meringue Bones and Ghosts – Scary Easy

While I know no one is ever actually scared by the "spooky" Halloween treats you see posted this time year, I do know for a fact that many people are terrified to work with meringue. Hopefully, these bones and ghosts will help chase those demons away.

As long as your bowl is clean, and you don’t accidentally get any egg yolk in there, you should be fine. It may take a while, especially if you do it by hand, but if you keep whisking, eventually you should get a nice, glossy meringue that will hold a shape when piped.

Speaking of which, you can make this in any shape you want, in case you were thinking about trying to do a full skeleton (show off). Of course, different shapes may change the cooking time, but you’ll figure it out.  As long as your meringue feels firm and dry, you’re probably in good shape to let it cool in the oven.

By the way, I did these on a very humid day in San Francisco, and as they sat on the plate, they sort of stuck together a little bit.  They came apart fairly easily, but I wanted to ask our experienced bakers and candy makers if there’s a trick to prevent this kind of thing? Maybe some powdered sugar or cornstarch? Let me know if you have any ideas.

These are probably a little too time-consuming, delicate, and completely inappropriate to use for Halloween trick-or-treaters, but if you’re having a holiday themed party, these would be a hit. I hope you give these meringue bones and ghosts a try soon, and as always, enjoy!



Ingredients for  about 2 dozen small bones, or other shapes:
2 large egg whites, room temp (don’t get any yolk in it or it will not work!)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar or fresh lemon juice
a scant 1/2 cup sugar (that means almost, but not quite full), added a spoon at a time, once the egg whites start forming a very soft meringue
* bake at 225 F. for 1 hour, then turn off oven and let cool with door closed another hour

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Any suggestions on how one would flavor these up a bit? Like vanilla or almond extract?

Monica said...

Thunderstorms and meringue are not friends. So this may account for the weeping. They taste just as good!

Unknown said...

One small suggestion to this simple and great recipe that my grandmother
passed to me - add walnut haves inside, and some more lemon juice,
that combo works great!

Unknown said...

Barnabas Collins and ghost dogs. Lol! Happy Halloween Chef!

Unknown said...

i couldn't get the peaks to make the ghosts, so my 4 year old and i made a big flat ghost. it's cooking in a slightly increased temp over just now (240). hopefully will be as yum as i know meringue can be.

Unknown said...

When I made my meringue, I left it at room temp for a few hours and it basically melted. What do I do?
Ps,
I have a very limited kitchen so I only have a stove, electric mixer, microwave,toaster, refrigerator, and a freezer.