Meringue Kisses and Flavoured Meringue Recipe.

I love these little meringue drops!  You can hide chocolate chips in them for a surprise in the bite, and the flavours are endless!  I have made them for wedding favours, party desserts or to go with a cup of tea.  They last great in an airtight container. 

ALSO FAT FREE!!!  (Okay copious amounts of sugar – but officially fat free!!!)

Makes 20-30 meringue kisses


150g caster sugar
3 med egg whites
Pinch salt

First I make a batch of basic meringue:

Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.  Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Put the sugar in a roasting dish, and put in oven until hot about 5 minutes.

Whisk eggs until foaming, add the hot sugar as quickly as possible (I do it in my stand up mixer – and usually make a mess so maybe do it in 2 batches!) and continue to whisk the eggs until very stiff, it should be cold after about 8 minutes whisking.  If still a little warm, continue till cold!

This is your basic meringue.  You could pipe kisses now, but I like to split the batch and make lots of different flavours (usually 3)!

Flavours –

Lime and Coconut - Lime Zest and desiccated coconut
Raspberry and White Chocolate – freeze dried raspberry chopped very fine added to meringue piped on white chocolate chips
Double Chocolate – cocoa powder added to meringue piped on milk or dark Chocolate Drops – Plain meringue piped on a chocolate chip
Strawberry – freeze dried strawberries chopped very fine
Lemon Meringue – Lemon zest or a drop of Lemon extract
Mint Chocolate – cocoa powder and peppermint extract, can double up on a chocolate chip too!
Hazelnut – roasted and chopped finely hazelnuts.
A drop of food colour makes these stand out too!

I have not given quantities, as it depends on how much you are making/split the basic.  It really is to taste too.  To a third of the batch I would add 1tsp of crushed/powdered fruit or cocoa and 2 drops of flavour

Fold in very gently the flavours and powders.  Do not add too much liquid flavour as it will be less light and airy.

For chocolate drops, place the chocolate chips on the lined baking tray – it is best if you do this in straight ordered lines,

Attach your chosen nozzle to a piping bag, and load in the meringues.  NB – if you have added nuts or fruit, then do not use a closed tip or small nozzle as it will all get stuck and very messy!!

Pipe all the kisses about the same size (for perfection you can draw circles on the underside of the paper before lining tray)

You can also pipe names and shapes!

Turn the oven down to 110ºC.

Bake meringues for 30 minutes then turn the oven off, and leave the oven door very slightly ajar – mine rests about 3 inches open – which is perfect!