Portuguese Baked Pink Meringue

Hahaha I know they look like cute little pink turds hahahah, this is a super easy recipe for baked meringue its a easy sweet o make, and a meringue by itself is a super versatile sweet, like here you can bake and then eat it plain or use in more elaborate desserts like Eton Mess, but a meringue itself can be used as part of a recipe, filling or even just a way to incorporate extra air into egg whites for a more fluffy dessert.

Although there are several different types of meringues, i went with the classic French meringue, the easiest and simplest and the most common for meringues.

As natural, I made these pink meringues because I had a pile of extra egg whites, in which case I added a little red food colouring near the end just to create the pink colour (for valentines day), and made then smaller because i like simples crunchy baked meringues, if you make them large for like a Pavlova, the outside is crispy but the inside is creamy meringue hehehe i just want the crispy bits hahaah, let’s get to the recipe!

Portuguese Baked Pink Meringue

Servings: 12
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★
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Delightfully delicate and oh-so-pink! These dreamy meringues are the perfect treat for any occasion.

Ingredients

Sugar – 600gr (Granulated or Powdered)
Egg Whites – 400gr (at room temperature)
Lemon – One drop of juice
Food Colouring – 1 or 2 Drops of Red

Directions

Start by preheating the oven to 80ºC and line a baking tray with non-stick paper or silicone mats.
Whisk the egg whites with a few drops of lemon juice, you want them at soft peaks (this means if you make a small “hill” with the egg whites the peak will start to bend).
When they reach soft peaks, gradually star adding the sugar (check notes), whisking constantly, until the meringue is firm with strong peaks and creamy.

Now add a drop or two of red food colouring and whisk for 2 seconds just to mix well.

Put the meringue in a piping bag (or if you don’t have one, just use a freezer bag and then cut off one the ends), pour spirals of the meringue onto the baking tray (if you want to make filled ones, pour a spiral and with a spoon make a small hole, pour in the jam/chocolate/cookies and then cover with a little more meringue), try to make them all about the same size so they will bake evenly.
Put the meringues in the oven, note that if they’re small they’ll take about 40 minutes its not a hot oven, if they’re bigger or with fillings they can take up to 1.5 hours.
When they’re ready, switch off the oven and open the door to let them cool slowly in the oven, this will help prevent them from cracking (from the different temperate between the inside and outside or the meringue).
And that’s it, ready to serve and enjoy, store the baked meringues in airtight boxes with a little absorbent paper, so they’ll last well, way over a week, if you make them stuffed they’ll only last 1-2 days, they’ll gradually start to get soft in contact with air, bon appetit.

Notes: If while baking the meringue starts to turn too blond then you have the oven too hot, the grill is on or they’ve been in the oven for too long, baked meringues are perfect without any colour (apart from the colour you add hehehe). Also with the food colouring it’s worth adding just a tiny bit, mixing and checking the colour and then adjusting if you think it needs more, adding too much colouring will give the meringue a bright red color or worst a strange flavour from the food colouring, less is more.

Baked Meringue can be made with granulated white sugar or powdered sugar, normally its powdered, but in Portugal and my mother tend to use just the plain granulated, the difference is that there might be some small crunchy sugary bits that didn’t dissolve completely, so if you are going for perfection go for powdered, if you are ok with home cooking rusting awesomeness, then go right ahead with plain sugar hahhaah ;D

This recipe for Portuguese Baked Pink Meringue was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Suspiros para Namorados foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.