MERINGUE CHRISTMAS TREES
MERINGUE CHRISTMAS TREES
A Review Of Good Housekeeping’s Recipe
By Mrs D
This recipe for meringue Christmas trees was taken from the Good Housekeeping magazine & website. I wanted to find some recipes I could do with the grandchildren. It’s such fun and easy to do, children will love helping to decorate them and you can also give them as gifts for the holidays too.
What I Thought Of The Recipe
The recipe for these meringue Christmas trees was very minimal, in both the magazine and on the online version.
Click to go to the original Good Housekeeping recipe for Christmas Tree Meringues.
I managed to make the trees, but I am experienced with meringue making and knew some things to help with the process.
As I say these are great to do with the children as they can help pipe and decorate them and they are lovely to give as a gift especially if you put them in a little see through gift bag with a little ribbon tied round.
While these turned out great and are a great idea for Christmas entertaining, the recipe was lacking. As mentioned, the recipe instructions were minimal and very basic, There were no conversions for measurements, temperature etc. And no process photos, just the final product. Less experienced bakers might end up with an unsuccessful bake by following the original recipe alone.
My Rating
So taking all into consideration, I give a rating of 5/10 for Good Housekeeping’s recipe for Meringue Christmas Trees.
Review Rating: 5/10
So for less experienced bakers, I have included my own hints and tips, the recipe in my own words as well as ingredient conversions and generally anything that was missing from the recipe.
So here’s the recipe with my conversions & tips for successful meringue trees.
MERINGUE CHRISTMAS TREES
Equipment
- Scales or measuring cups
- Mixing spoon
- Stand or Hand mixer and mixing bowl
- Sieve
- Measuring Spoons
- 2 trays lined with baking/parchment paper
- Timer
- Cooling rack
- Cocktail Stick
- Icing bag with nozzle 5mm (1/5”) open or star nozzle
Ingredients
- 3 Med Egg whites (from US Large sized)
- 150 grams Caster Sugar (5 ozs, ¾ cup)
- ⅛ tsp Cream of Tartar
- Green food colouring (paste or gel)
For Decoration
- Sugar sprinkles (including gold or silver stars)
- Edible glitter
Instructions
Prepare Your Baking Tray
- Pre-heat the oven to 110°c, Fan Oven 90°c, 225°f ,Gas Mark ¼.
- Line 2 baking trays/sheets with baking/parchment paper. Grease in place if they do not have a lip (or the meringues can fall off!)
Prepare The Meringues
- Before whisking the egg whites, make sure your bowl is clean of any grease as it will prevent the egg whites from holding stiff peaks. Here’s Caro’s short video on whisking egg whites.
- Using a hand or stand mixer, beat the egg whites in a large bowl until they hold firm peaks. The way I test is to hold the bowl upside down and it should stay put. They do say hold it over your head which I have done many times and it hasn’t landed on me yet!
- Now very gradually start adding the sugar. Do not add it all in one go as the meringue will collapse. I do it very gradually about 25g (about 5 tsp) at a time so that the meringue remains stiff and it will look thick and glossy once complete. Do not hurry this as it’s the most important part. Otherwise the meringue will collapse and you will not be able to pipe it.
- Next add in the cream of tartar and enough food colouring for a lovely pastel green shade, making sure the meringue still holds stiff peaks. Add a little colouring at a time on a cocktail stick till you get the required colour.
Pipe The Meringue Christmas Trees
- Put the meringue mixture in a piping bag and pipe tree shaped mounds onto the baking/parchment paper. I piped about 4cm (1.5”) high and 4cm (1.5”) wide and left some space in-between them.
- Now add the sprinkles and add a gold or silver star on the top
Bake The Meringue Trees
- Pop in the oven & bake for 1hr 20mins – 1hr 30mins. The meringue trees are ready when you can peel them off the paper.
- Leave in the oven with the door ajar, until cooled completely.
Storage Of The Meringue Trees
- These will keep for up to 3 weeks stored in an airtight container, in a cool place. (I can't comment on that as mine didn’t last that long, but nothing ever does in my house unless I hide it!)
- Note that inside of the meringues also become more chewy as they are stored, which I like too.
Notes
Click here for more meringue recipes
Or read some more of Caro’s Recipe Reviews
Cranberry Orange Pecan Scottish Shortbread (above)
Check out the Christmas Recipes page.
Here’s the link to this recipe – Meringue Christmas Trees
For converting recipe ingredients, go to Caro’s Table for CONVERSION OF UK & US COMMON BAKING INGREDIENTS
Recipe for using up the Egg Yolks: – lemon curd, fig anise curd or the blueberry orange curd
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Meringue Christmas Trees
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Mrs D & Caro xx
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