Vegan meringue kisses

• Gluten free

• Produce

  • 1 Beetroot, medium

• Canned Goods

  • 120 ml Aquafaba / chickpea brine

• Baking & Spices

  • 125 g Caster sugar, fine

• Oils & Vinegars

  • 1/2 tsp White vinegar

Found on lazycatkitchen.com

Description

Directions

• Juice the beetroot if you own a juicer. If you don’t have a juicer grate it coarsely, place it in the middle of a muslin cloth and squeeze all the juice out of it. It should yield about 3 tsp of juice, which is plenty for giving your meringue kisses lovely festive colour.Line a baking tray with a fresh (it is important that the surface is grease-free) sheet of baking paper.In a large, clean bowl (make sure there is no greasy residue, it is best to use a glass bowl for this) beat chickpea water with an electric whisk or use a stand mixer until you get stiff peaks. You may want to add ½ tsp of vinegar to speed things up although I have been able to get stiff peaks without it too.To test if whipped chickpea water is ready, gently turn the bowl upside down. If the mixture does not start sliding down, you can start adding sugar. Otherwise, keep on whipping until the mixture stays in the bowl when inverted.Start adding sugar very slowly, tablespoon by tablespoon, whipping well after each addition. Continue until all the sugar has been added. By now, the mixture should become beautifully glossy, thick and sticky – no different to an egg-based meringue, really.Pre-heat the oven to 100º C / 210º F.Take a clean ziplock / sandwich bag and trickle ½ tsp of beetroot juice inside making sure it coats the insides of the bag and doesn’t gather at the bottom. Now spoon meringue mixture into the bag – you may want to lay the bag on its side for this so that the beetroot juice doesn’t all run to the corner of the bag.Cut the corner of your filled bag off – start with a small hole and make it larger if needed. Hold the bag perpendicular to the tray and squeeze small blobs of the mixture onto the tray and quickly pull away after each blob. Allow some space around each blob or else the drops may stick together.Bake for about 75 minutes, then turn the oven off but leave the tray with meringue drops inside with the oven’s door slightly open for another 45-60 minutes for the meringues to dry out fully. Keep the meringues in an airtight container.