Mini meringues are an obsession. Once you start making them, you won’t be able to stop. While the prep work is pretty easy, the bake and drying times are long, meaning you can only make one or two flavors per day.
Not a problem! These little poppable meringue buttons are worth the wait.
Mini meringues inspired by France
French meringues are by far the most popular out there, but we do a little spin off with ours by adding the flavors of Provence, France into the batter.
While in college, I visited the lavender fields of Provence. That smell never really leaves you, nor does the flavor. In the past 10 years, cooking with lavender has become all the rage. It is a fine balance between delicious and soapy, but when done right, the lemon lavender combination is perfection.
It may not be for everyone, but we find that these lemon lavender mini meringues go perfectly with our Lavender Bees Knees cocktail. Add a few fun toppings after you pip them out and before you bake in the oven. I love these mini meringues with just a pinch of lava salt, dried lavender or bee pollen.
Are you ready to dive into the wonderful world of meringues? Warning: you might not be able to stop once you start making these little buttons of goodness.
Lemon Lavender Mini Meringues recipe
Bring together the flavor of lavender fields of Provence in these lemon lavender mini meringues.
Meringue Ingredients
- 2 egg whites (room temperature)
- 1/8 tsp cream of tarter
- ½ cup of sugar (if using regular sugar, run it through the food processor first to get it extra fine).
- Zest of one lemon (or 3/4 tsp lemon extract)
- ¼ tsp of Vanilla
- 1/2 – 1 tsp of dried cooking lavender
- Purple and yellow food coloring
Mini Meringue Directions
- Move your top oven rack to the middle. The second oven rack can go right below the first as long as you can fit a cookie sheet between them.
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (94 degrees Celsius).
- Make a sugar and lavender mixture by putting the 1/2 cup of sugar and dried lavender into the food processor. Grind until you get a fine powder. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or electric mixer (like my KitchenAid), beat egg whites until soft peaks begin to form on medium speed in a large bowl.
- Add the cream of tarter to the egg whites and sugar on medium high speed until thick and white stiff peaks form.
- Continue to whisk, slowly add the sugar lavender mix one tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat the eggs on medium-high until sugar and egg whites are combined and peaks form.
- Turn your mixer to low and add in the lemon zest (or extract) and vanilla extract until just combined. Don’t over beat!
- Fill a piping bag, using a large star tip. A small opening will get clogged with the zest.
- Pipe the meringue kisses out onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet, making them about the size of a nickel. Space them about an inch apart, but don’t worry too much. Meringues don’t really spread.
- Bake the meringues for 70 minutes. Do NOT open the oven. Once done, leave the mini meringues in the oven for a minimum of two hours. This will give you a nice, crunchy mini meringue to munch on.
- Store in an airtight container. They should last two weeks… if you can resist eating them all in one go. These mini meringues are as addictive and tiny as eating popcorn while watching your favorite movie set in Paris.
Sugar Measurements:
If you like a mini meringue that is a little less sweet, you can cut the sugar. Just keep in mind that you need three tablespoons of sugar per egg white in order to get a hard French meringue bake.
Mini Meringue Toppings
Try adding a pinch of these ingredients to the top of your meringues just before you bake. It will bring out the flavors a bit more.
My favorite? Iceland Lava salt. Salt gives your meringue that sweet and salty combo so many of us crave.
Mini Meringue Piping tips
Piping isn’t as hard as you think, and doesn’t have to be fancy.
To get your mini meringue mixture into the bag, take a tall glass and put your piping bag (with tip) into it. Pull the sides over the glass to make a stable opening.
Grab a spoon and start ladling the meringue mix into the pastry bag lined glass. As it fills, simply pull up the sides to give yourself more space in the bag.
Adding color to your mini meringues
You can go simple and just add a drop or two into the mini meringue mixture when you add in the final ingredients, or you can get fancy. Adding food color directly to your meringue mixture will give you one solid color.
To make one or two color lines on your meringues, put one drop of food color on the side of your piping bag, letting it run down the side. If you want to add a second color, simply add another drop down the opposite side. These won’t be perfect, but they will give you a nice saturation in your otherwise white meringues.
Mini Meringue Flavors
If you aren’t a fan of Lemon Lavender, have no fear. This melt in your mouth recipe works with a multitude of flavors. Simply replace the lemon and lavender with ½-3/4 tsp of your favorite extract.
Here are some meringue flavors and natural extracts we love:
- Passion Fruit
- Mango
- Cherry
- Key Lime
- Peach
- Strawberry
- Lemon
- Blueberry
- Sparkling wine (add peach for Italian bellinis!)
- Peppermint
- Blackberry
- Raspberry
- Cocoa
- Peanut Butter
- Coconut
- Chai
- Cinnamon
- Coffee
- Or Grab a mix and match extract bundle for multiple flavors.
Need more? Check out our Meringue recipe and flavor combos that take you around the world!
PIN IT FOR LATER!
Mini Meringues
Bring together the flavor of lavender fields of Provence in these lemon lavender mini meringues.
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites (room temperature)
- 1/8 tsp cream of tarter
- ½ cup of sugar (if using regular sugar, run it through the food processor first to get it extra fine).
- Zest of one lemon (or 3/4 tsp lemon extract)
- ¼ tsp of Vanilla
- 1/2 - 1 tsp of dried cooking lavender
- Purple and yellow food coloring
Instructions
- Move your top oven rack to the middle. The second oven rack can go right below the first as long as you can fit a cookie sheet between them.
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (94 degrees Celsius).
- Make a sugar and lavender mixture by putting the 1/2 cup of sugar and dried lavender into the food processor. Grind until you get a fine powder. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or electric mixer (like my KitchenAid), beat egg whites until soft peaks begin to form on medium speed in a large bowl.
- Add the cream of tarter to the egg whites and sugar on medium high speed until thick and white stiff peaks form.
- Continue to whisk, slowly add the sugar lavender mix one tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat the eggs on medium-high until sugar and egg whites are combined and peaks form.
- Turn your mixer to low and add in the lemon zest (or extract) and vanilla extract until just combined. Don’t over beat!
- Fill a piping bag, using a large star tip. A small opening will get clogged with the zest.
- Pipe the meringue kisses out onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet, making them about the size of a nickel. Space them about an inch apart, but don’t worry too much. Meringues don’t really spread.
- Bake the meringues for 70 minutes. Do NOT open the oven. Once done, leave the mini meringues in the oven for a minimum of two hours. This will give you a nice, crunchy mini meringue to munch on.
- Store in an airtight container. They should last two weeks… if you can resist eating them all in one go. These mini meringues are as addictive and tiny as eating popcorn while watching your favorite movie set in Paris.
Notes
TOPPINGS
Try adding a pinch of these ingredients to the top of your meringues just before you bake. It will bring out the flavors a bit more.
My favorite? Iceland Lava salt. Salt gives your meringue that sweet and salty combo so many of us crave.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
40Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 11Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 3mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 0gSugar: 3gProtein: 0g
All nutritional information is estimated.
