Who doesn't love meringues?  Did you know how easy they were to make?  I make up huge batches in our house because they are a quick fat free snack that travels well and looks fancy!  These are my Clementine Meringues. 

Perfect meringues depend on totally yolk-free whites, in a perfectly clean bowl that is dry.  The seemingly fussy step of separating each egg into a small bowl before combining them guarantees yolk-free whites for bakeshop-quality meringues every time. You won't want to skip the step and end up with flat meringues.

Seperate like this below

These crispy little morsels travel well and make great gifts too.  I prefer to make mini size ones because they cook faster and it is a larger quanity!  And my kids devour them in 2 days!

About 80 (1 1/2-inch) cookies | Active Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 3 hours 

Ingredients

5 large egg
whites, at room temperature 

1/4 teaspoon
cream of tartar

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon zest from clementine

Juice from one clementine

1/2 teaspoon
vanilla extract (add whatever flavor you want these to be, peppermint, orange,  chocolate, coffee etc.)

Optional: Finely chopped nuts, mints, or mini chocolate chips

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.  be sure to line pan
with parchment paper so they are stick free when cooked!

Separate one
egg at a time into a small bowl, letting the white fall into the bowl and setting
aside the yolk if you want it for something else or discard (use for the previous egg liquer recipe).  If there’s any trace of yolk in the white,
discard the white and start over. If it’s yolk-free, transfer to a clean medium
mixing bowl or stand mixer. Repeat with the remaining eggs.  Just a tip- this works best if the yolks are room temperature.

In a glass or
metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric or stand mixer. Add cream of
tartar to the whites and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until
soft peaks form.

 Add vanilla and any other flavoring beat for 30 seconds
more. 

Slowly add sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time, until all the sugar has been added.

Add Zest and Juice of Clementine

You can also add food coloring at this point to make fun colors.   When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like
satin, stop mixing, (add nuts or mini chips and carefully fold in) and transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag or like I use, a large ziploc bag.  

I put my plastic bag inside a big cup to keep it stable to pour in the meringue batter..

Position racks
in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 200°F. Line 2 large
baking sheets with parchment paper. Place a small amount of the meringue under
each corner of the paper to secure it to the pan. Fill a 1-2 quart sealable
plastic bag (or pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip) with the meringue.
Seal the bag almost completely, leaving a small opening for air to escape from
the top as you squeeze. Snip off one corner of the bag with scissors, making a
3/4-inch-wide opening. Fold the top of the bag over a few times, then gently
push the meringue down to the snipped corner. Working with the bag
perpendicular to the baking sheet, pipe the meringue into 1 1/2-inch-diameter
cookies, spacing them about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake the cookies until dry and crisp throughout, about 2 1/2 -3 hours. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let the cookies cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. I keep mine in the oven (shut oven off) and cool off over night- in the AM I pull
them out and store in air tight containers. 

They last about a day in my house!  Especially the peppermint flavor.