MERINGUE CHRISTMAS TREES Recipe

How to make it

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• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Sift together powdered sugar and flour.
• In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the powdered sugar-flour mixture with the extract or liquor. Mix into a paste. Stir in desired food coloring. Set aside.
• In a stand mixer at high speed or using a hand whisk vigorously, whip egg whites. When the egg whites reach soft peaks, begin sprinkling in the granulated sugar. Add small amounts of sugar as the eggs whip, making your last addition just as the egg whites reach stiff peaks.
• Turn off mixer. With a spatula, gently fold in the remaining powdered sugar-flour mixture, being careful not to deflate the meringue. Stir in the colored paste mixture.
• Transfer the meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a small- to medium-size star tip. Pipe tree shapes onto parchment-lined baking sheets, each about 1 inch apart.
• Place one baking sheet on a lower oven rack and one on an upper rack. Bake for 30 minutes, using a wooden spoon to keep the oven door ajar. Reverse the positions of the baking sheets and continue baking an additional 30 to 40 minutes, with the oven door ajar, until the meringues barely begin to color and are dry inside.
• Cool to room temperature before decorating with royal icing as desired.
• COOKIE TIP
• PIPING: Use back-and-forth serpentine motions. Start narrow at the top and widen as you go. Squeeze the bag with even pressure and increase the width of the back-and-forth motion from the top of the "tree" to the bottom. For smaller "trees," make 4 to 6 back-and-forth strokes. For larger "trees," try 8 to 10 strokes.