Meringue Cookies

from My Retro Kitchen

Meringues are egg white-sugar cookies that are baked for a long time at a low temperature.

Ingredients

4 large egg whites

1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar, or cider vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 200ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with foil.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy. Add vinegar; beat until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar; beat until glossy stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla.

Spoon tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart each, making about 44 cookies.

**Actually I put the mixture into a cookie decorating funnel and squeeze out the cookies. This makes them look much prettier like the ones from Trader Joes.

Bake until meringues feel dry and crisp all the way through, about 3 hours. Turn off oven; leave meringues in oven for 1 hour. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely. Peel meringues off foil and store in an airtight container.

Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

This recipe is such a winner because of so few ingredients and relatively low calories for what you get...fat free. and Very versatile, you can use tons of variations with extracts such as lemon, peppermint, chocolate added to make many flavors...I even thought of maybe using food color to make for different holidays!