Merry Meringue Snowmen

Ingredients

1/2 cup / 125 g

Naturegg Simply Egg Whites Free Run, well shaken

1/2 tsp / 2 ml

cream of tartar

1 1/4 cup / 300 ml

superfine granulated sugar

1 tsp / 5 ml

cornstarch

mini chocolate chips and/or sprinkles for decorating

Directions

1. Meringues: Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 200°F (100°C). Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy in a non-reactive bowl. Stir the sugar with the cornstarch. Beating constantly, very gradually add the sugar mixture to the egg whites a spoonful at a time, until stiff, glossy peaks form.

2. Transfer the egg white mixture to a piping bag fitted with a round tip. For each snowman, pipe three small rounds, side-by-side, each smaller than the next (about 1 1/2 inch/4 cm, 1 inch/2.5 cm and 1/2 inch/1 cm respectively). Smooth any peaks with a slightly damp clean fingertip.

3. Decorate meringues to look like snowmen using chocolate chips and sprinkles for buttons and faces. Bake for 2 hours; turn off oven and let stand for 1 hour or until crisp and dry. (Meringues can be prepared and reserved in an airtight container for 1 week.)

Tips

1. Add extra decorations to cooled meringues such as gumdrop toques and licorice scarves by attaching with prepared royal or sugar cookie icing. Let set completely before moving.

2. If you don't have a piping bag handy, you can use a zip-top bag and cut a whole in one corner.

3. For easy decorating for little fingers, make the snowmen larger, starting with a 2-inch (5 cm) ball for the base. The recipe will yield 24 snowmen.