Monday, December 22, 2008

Peppermint Pretties


I decided last week that I really needed to get myself into the holiday spirit. With Thankgiving being so late, they didn't really give us a whole lot of time to prepare ourselves for the onslaught of holiday festivities. This year is really quite lax for Steve and I, as we just bought our condo, new furniture, and are planning our wedding, so buying piles of presents wasn't really on the agenda. Fortunately we've both been able to do all of our shopping online (thank you, work, for letting me have box after box sent to me at the office!) and stayed away from the madness...but that means we've also stayed a little bit removed from the whole holiday thing.

Joy the Baker really inspired me to make her Peppermint Meringues. Each one just looks so precious, and with the primary ingredients being sugar and eggs, who could really mess this one up? So I thought, anyway.

I've never had meringue cookies before, so I didn't really know what to expect from start to finish, although Joy's instructions were quite straightforward. Obviously the "wow" factor for these is how she painted the inside of her pastry bag so that when the meringues are piped out, they're striped with color. Easy enough.

I think I must have had a combination of the wrong size of star tip that I used to pipe these out with, and maybe meringue that wasn't quite stiff enough, because mind ended up looking more like chocolate kisses and less like cute little stars. Also, the first half that I piped bore almost not color at all, so by the time the color was really pulling through, the bag was almost empty! I had ok luck with refilling the bag, but wow this stuff gets messy! Definitely a one shot deal in my book.

So how did they taste, you ask? Quite minty! And airy. I'm not a crazy-for-mint person, but these were delicious and light on the tongue. And oh, how good would these be to accompany a mocha or hot chocolate?!

It's hard to believe the Christmas countdown is here...time to get wrapping...and hang some decorations (wherever they might be, hmm)!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The holidays snuck up on me as well this year! We also just bought a place and have a wedding to plan, so I'm right there with you :-) Great picture of the Meringues. They sound delightful! Happy Holidays!

Anonymous said...

ha! what a great picture! your meringues look great! i'm sorry you felt like they didn't turn out. from your description i think maybe you needed to beat the eggs longer... but they look great! i love the blue!

Leslie said...

ohhhh yes...these in some hot chocolate would be perfect!