Meringue Snowmen

These meringue snowmen will totally melt your heart.

Today, I’m sharing my foolproof recipe on how to make your own meringue cookies for the holidays.

I’ve talked about meringue cookies on the blog before. For those of you loyal readers, I’m sure you’ve come across my Valentine Meringue Cookie Sandwiches as well as my Meringue Ghost Cupcakes.

For the Christmas season, I just knew that I wanted to whip up something thematic. Below, I’ll show you how to make meringue cookies and how to decorate them for the holidays.

Rather than baking traditional sugar cut-out cookies, I opted for meringue cookies. I love experimenting with different recipes by adding different elements to them. Rather than just serving straight-up meringue, I figured decorating it with a variety of treats would give them some originality.

Of course, I headed to Bulk Barn to purchase the bulk (no pun intended!) of my ingredients.The concept of Bulk Barn is simple: their aisles’ boast large bins of products that are available for direct consumer purchase. They carry all sorts of items: from flour to chia seeds, chocolate chips to candies, and spices to teas. I love that I can control the amount of each ingredient I choose to purchase. They’re all about taking environmental endeavours, so they encourage the use of containers and jars as you shop.

I also love the fact that they constantly have sales and promotions. If you sign up for their newsletter, you get weekly access to their coupons – and it’s really worth it if you’re constantly baking delicious treats.

These Meringue Snowmen will surely be a hit at your upcoming Christmas party. Here’s how to make them:

How to Make Meringue Snowmen

For the meringue:
2 egg whites, room temperature
¼ tsp lemon juice (cream of tartar would work, too)
½ cup granulated sugar

For the buttercream frosting:
½ stick butter (approx. ¼ cup), softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp milk

To decorate:
Black decorating frosting, with Wilton tip #3 attached
Orange decorating frosting, with Wilton tip #3 attached
3 mini pretzel sticks, broken into quarters

Yields: One dozen meringue snowmen

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Using a stand electric mixer, start beating egg whites and lemon juice on slow speed.

Slowly add granulated sugar and increase mixer’s speed to high. Beat for at least 10 minutes or until stiff peaks start to form.

Scoop meringue into a piping bag and pipe out 12 “blobs” on the lined baking sheet (note: they don’t need to be uniform since they will look like “melted” snowmen – they should be about 1 ½ to 2 inches in diameter.

Bake for 2 hours. Once time is up, turn off the heat and keep them in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the buttercream frosting: using an electric mixer, beat together butter, sugar and milk.

Once the buttercream starts to take shape (ie.: is smooth and forms semi-stiff peaks), scoop ¾ of it into a piping bag with Wilton tip #5 attached.

Remove meringue cookies from oven and allow to cool. Frost a buttercream circle on the top of each meringue cookie.

With the black decorating frosting, pipe out eyes and buttons.

Using the orange decorating frosting, pie out a carrot nose.

Dip the pretzel pieces in the remaining buttercream and place two on either side of each of your meringue snowmen cookies.

What do you think of these meringue snowmen cookies? Is it something you think your family would enjoy?