Santa Hat Meringue Cookies

I have been making these cookies with my mom for as long as I can remember! These do take a bit of patience but the end result is a fun and festive sweet treat. A meringue cookie is made from whipped egg whites and sugar. They are then baked at a low temperature to create a light and airy treat with a crisp outside and soft "melt-in-your-mouth" inside. I believe my mom found this recipe in a magazine over 15 years ago but I followed this recipe here and the results were great! The best thing about this recipe is it is really just a basic meringue recipe. You can make the mixture and pipe the cookies into any shape you want and decorate however you want (think Christmas trees, stars, etc)!

Makes 24 Santa Hats

Ingredients:

2 Egg Whites (at room temperature)

½ tsp of Cream of Tartar (found in the spice section at grocery stores)

¼ tsp of Vanilla Extract

½ cup of White Sugar

Red Sugar

1. Follow steps here on preheating the oven and making the meringue mixture. You will know you are finished whipping once you have stiff peaks in the mixture (pictured here).

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. I chose not to add any food coloring and just use red sugar for the coloring. Add all of the mixture to a piping bag and pipe triangles onto the parchment paper. They do not all have to be uniform and you can add a slight bend to some of the triangles to resemble a santa hat. Generously sprinkle the triangles with the red sugar. (Be sure to remove excess sugar from the pan or it will melt all over the cookies).

3. Add a white circle on top of the triangles and pipe white trim onto the bottom of the triangles.

4. Bake the cookies for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Once they are done baking, turn off the oven but let the cookies cool in the oven so they continue to crisp. Enjoy!