Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon Meringues

It has been such a long time since I made meringues that I can't even remember the last time I made them. Normally I'm not a huge fan of meringues because I find them kind of bland. This time I decided to spice things up a bit with cinnamon and vanilla. Turns out this was a good idea. The cookies are speckled with the cinnamon and vanilla beans so not only do they taste great, they look pretty too! I used a piping bag to make little swirls but you can also drop them on a sheet using a spoon if you don't need them to be all fancy schmancy. 

Meringues are an easy, inexpensive cookie to make for just about every occasion. I made them up for a bake sale and packaged them in pretty pink boxes. 

Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon Meringues

Ingredients

3 egg whites

1 vanilla bean, scraped and pod discarded

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

pinch of cream of tartar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, place egg whites, vanilla bean, and sugar. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk gently and constantly until sugar is dissolved - about 3 minutes. (Mixture will be warm but not hot.)

When sugar is dissolved, place bowl in stand mixer and beat until eggs are foamy. Beat in salt, cream of tartar, and cinnamon. Continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 5 - 7 minutes.

Place in a piping bag and pipe onto prepared cookie sheet. 

Bake approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes at 200 degrees. Cookies should be crispy outside and slightly soft inside. If they still seem a little sticky on the outside, shut off the oven and let them sit in the oven another half hour or so. 

When they are done, let cool 5 minutes on cookie tray before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

They are a fairly fragile cookie but are a wonderful combination of crunchy and chewy textures without being too sweet.

I made them a little fancier because I was making them for a bake sale, but they taste just as wonderful if you drop them by the spoonful on the cookie sheet. FYI - I got 36 medium sized cookies out of this recipe.