Toasted Coconut Meringues
Last weekend my friend Betsy came over for lunch, some girl talk, coloring and wine. It was fun to catch up! I also wanted to make something sweet for us to enjoy so I looked to see what ingredients we already had on hand. I had made my Earl Grey Creme Brûlée earlier in the week so I had some egg whites in the fridge. I pondered macarons, but realized we didn’t have anything great for a filling so I landed on meringues. Then I wanted something to make them special so I decided to add some toasted coconut. I love coconut but Derek is not a fan (mostly of the texture) so I was also happy to get my coconut fix!
Let’s get to it!
The first step will be to toast your coconut. Heat a small pan over medium and add your coconut.
Stir occasionally with a fork so it doesn’t burn and heat until it’s golden brown. It’ll only take a few minutes so don’t go anywhere!
Once the coconut is browned, put it on a plate to cool.
Now onto the actual meringues! Preheat your oven and cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Now whip the egg whites and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium speed until they are frothy, just a couple of minutes.
Crank up the speed to medium-high and gradually add the sugar, a spoonful at a time. Using superfine sugar here will ensure you don’t have gritty meringues. You should be able to find it in the baking aisle of your local grocery store next to the granulated sugar.
Once all the sugar is added, add in the cream of tartar and vanilla. The cream of tartar will give the meringues some stability. Now crank your mixer up to high and beat about five minutes or until stiff peaks form. This means that when you lift the whisk attachment out, a peak should form and stay formed.
Now you’ll gently fold in your toasted coconut. Yum!
Now it’s time to form your meringues. I filled a piping bag with no tip (all of the coconut would clog a tip of a piping bag) and piped mounds onto my baking sheet. If you don’t want to pipe, you can just use a spoon to form mounds.
Bake your meringues for thirty minutes and then rotate the sheet and bake another thirty minutes. This last step may seem a little strange. You’re going to turn off the oven and leave the meringues in there. This helps to dry them out so they are crispy, crackly and crumbly, rather than chewy. Leave them in the cooling oven for 2 hours. Then take them out and enjoy!
These meringues are so tasty! They have some extra texture from the coconut, along with that lovely toasty flavor. Make sure to have napkins on hand because they tend to crumble/shatter a bit when you eat them. They are totally worth the mess, I promise!
Look at all that toasty coconut!
Enjoy!
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Ingredients
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup superfine sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 sweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
- Heat coconut over medium, stirring with a fork until golden brown. Cool on a plate.
- Now onto the actual meringues!
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees and cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Whip egg whites and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium speed until frothy, just a couple minutes. Increase speed to medium-high and gradually add sugar
- Add cream of tartar and vanilla.
- Increase speed to high and beat about 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.
- Fold in toasted coconut gently.
- Pipe (or spoon) mounds onto baking sheet.
- Bake 30 minutes and then rotate the sheet and bake another 30 minutes.
- Turn off oven and leave the meringues in the cooling oven for 2 hours.
- This recipe makes about 10 meringues.