Meringue Ghosts

Is it Halloween today ? This is the question that I have been answering NA for almost a month now, she asks this everyday when she wakes up in the morning, from the time she started seeing Costumes for sale in stores, she's eagerly waiting for Halloween day to dress up like her favorite Princess "Elsa" from the Movie " Frozen "

Seeing her eagerness we took her to a Costume store nearby and to our surprise she started crying, she got scared with all the Skeleton, smokes, sounds and the hanging dummies there, am sure she wouldn't have imagined this spooky seen in her Halloween - Dreams so far. Yesterday when I woke in the middle of the night I saw some fluorescent Ghost Stickers in my bed room , which was in NA'S bedroom till then, am not sure when she pasted it in our room,
when asked she told she's scared if those ghost would become "REAL"
:)

Since most "Mothers" are busy entertaining kids with  Halloween-baking and costume shopping, I also decided to do some Pumpkin Carvings and baking this time.

Starting with some Meringue Ghost Cookies - which are super easy to make , made it one time last year but  this year I made it for a friend of mine who's a Meringue Cookie fan.

Adapted from Joy of baking.com - Meringue Ghosts - followed the exact same procedure and recipe for Meringue Cookies as there wouldn't be a better explained Video for the same.

Ingredients - 

(I made these with half the quantity given below - gives up to 30 small Sized Cookies) 

Egg Whites - 4 no's 

Powdered Sugar - 1 cup

Salt - a pinch or use 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar (Which helps the Egg whites to fluff up)

Method 

* Preheat the Oven to 200 Degree F

*Beat Egg whites in a clean and dry bowl (Beaters should be dry too) , add Salt or Cream of Tartar and continue beating in low speed till the egg whites hold soft peaks.

* Continue beating in a medium to high speed, while adding powdered sugar little at a time until the whites can hold stiff peaks.

* Rub little of the Meringue with your fingers to check if its smooth , if its gritty the sugar need to be more dissolved so keep beating until its smooth.

* Transfer to a piping bag and pipe'em to a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

* Use some Candy Eyes as shown in Joy of Baking or may use some mini-chocolate chips to press'em carefully in to each Meringue cookies. I used some chocolate dessert toppers.

* Bake in 200 Degree preheated Oven for 1 hour , till they look dry and turns crispy. Leave these in the oven for some more time (2 to 3 Hour's) then transfer to an air tight container. 

Notes : Certain things if not taken care would ruin  Meringue cookies , I have experienced the same, a few times it came out really well,  with that confidence tried it again to get disastrous Cookies :)
hence things like - Baking temperature , Clean and dry vessels and Beaters, Careful separation of Egg-whites from the Yolks and proper storage of the Cookies is important.

Watch You tube video - Joy Of Baking - Below
If planning to make these for the first time.
 

       
Cheers
TN