GF
SF
SF
GF
Difficulty level: medium
Meringue kisses
Preparation time
30 minutes
Baking time
2.5 hours
When is it ready?
About 3 hours
Meringue, in the omnivore world, is made of egg-whites which are whipped for a few minutes in a mixer to create (together with sugar) a thick creamy sweet stable foam, which after almost 3 hours in the oven creates these dreamy lighter-than-air cookies, or in their commonly-used name "kisses".
The vegan version was developed by a French person named Joel Roessel, who managed to whip the Aquafaba (the water in which legumes have been cooked) into foam. The aquafaba of chickpeas replaces egg-whites in functionality, not just in meringue probably. As soon as I've heard of this, I had to give it a try. First time I tried it I used the aquafaba from freshly-cooked chickpeas (See recipe here) instead of canned chickpeas. But aquafaba from canned chickpeas are a safer way to go, as the protein concentration is more constant. I read somewhere that there is variation between brands, and some might not work great, but I can't say from experience, as I've tried only two kinds - my homemade kind, and one branded kind.
Ingredients
Let's get whipping!
For the cream
1/2 cup chickpeas' water
1 cup + 2 tbsps white sugar
1/4 cup tap water
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp corn starch
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For the cookies
280g all-purpose flour
100g sugar powder
100g vegan butter
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For the chocolate syrup
200g chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)
2 tsps Sunflower oil
Making the whipped foam
To a mixer's bowl, pour the aquafaba and turn on the mixer on high speed. Soon you'll notice the water begin to form sort of white strips and change color. That's when you add the sugar gradually. Let the mixer work for 10-12 minutes, until a very stable thick foam is formed. 1 minute before you stop the mixer, add the lemon juice, corn starch and vanilla extract.
The lemon juice & corn starch help stabilizing the protein in the whipped foam, so make sure to add them.
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Turn on the oven on (bake)175F/80C.
Place the cream in a piping bag, or if you don't have it (like I didn't at the time of preparation), just use a gallon-sized bag with a secured seal, so it doesn't pour out while you're working with it. Both work!
Now you just need to make a small incision of about a size of a pea, and begin to carefully apply the cream on top of parchment paper.
When you pour the foam, do it slowly and carefully, to get the form of the cookies as pictured above.
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Place the meringue kisses in the pre-heated oven, and bake them for 2.5 hours or even 3. The meringues are ready when they are dry and can be detached from the parchment paper with no effort.