Mother's Day Meringues

I wanted to make my mom something yummy for Mother's Day, but she hasn't been too much of a fan of my clean vegan recipes. When I came across this Strawberry Meringue recipe, I thought they were so pretty, and looked fairly easy to make. Plus I had all the ingredients!

Here is the recipe exactly as it appears on the site:

Strawberry Meringue Roses recipe (adapted from Food Network)

• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 6 tablespoons seedless strawberry preserves 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
• 2 drops red or pink food coloring (optional)
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 215 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  (Do not skip this or your meringues will stick to baking sheet).

Beat egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, preserves, extract and food coloring until frothy.  With mixer running, slowly add powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks have formed. 

Fit pastry bag with a large star tip.  Fill pastry bag with mixture.   Pipe round roses on lined baking sheet by piping 2 inch spirals starting from the center and rotating outwards. 

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Turn off oven and open door.  Let meringues dry in the oven for about 10-12 minutes.   Remove from oven and let cool.  

I halved this recipe, and it still made two cookie sheets full. 

I have never made meringue before, but I had fun piping out different designs. On the original site they are supposed to be roses, but mine looked more like dog poop after my dog has eaten some pink crayons, so I went with the swirly braid design instead. 

They came out so nice! Slight strawberry flavor, not too sweet, and super cute. 

Hope all of the wonderful mothers in the world had a lovely Mother's Day! 

Love and noms.