Santa Meringue Cookies
These Santa meringue cookies take classic meringue cookies and give them a holly, jolly makeover by coloring them to look just like Santa Claus.
When Christmas rolls around, we love making these delicious meringue cookies because they have the classic flavor of the holidays and a fun, festive look. They’re not difficult to make. It just takes a little practice.
Table of contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: It only takes a few basic ingredients to make these treats.
- Easier than You Think: Making these Santa meringues takes a little practice, but it’s not as difficult as you might imagine.
- So Festive: These Santa meringue cookies are like little edible Christmas decorations!
🛒Ingredients
You’ll only need five ingredients to make these meringue cookies. We’ve listed them below, but you can find their exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Egg whites
- Sugar
- Red food coloring gel
- Black food coloring gel
- Pink food coloring gel
🔪 How to Make Santa Meringue Cookies
Step 1: Prep
Preheat the oven to 215 degrees. Fill a medium pot with at least 1 1/2 inches of water. Then, bring it to a boil and reduce the heat, letting the water simmer gently.
Step 2: Cook the Meringue
Combine the egg whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl. Then, set it over the steaming water in the pot. Cook, stirring and scraping constantly with a flexible spatula, for 8 to 10 minutes or until the egg whites hold steady.
Step 3: Whisk
Remove the mixture from the heat and beat with an electric mixer for 8 to 10 minutes until the meringue is cool and glossy.
Step 4: Color
Divide the meringue into four even amounts. Color one batch red, one batch pink, one batch black, and leave one batch plain.
Step 5: Prep for Piping
Prepare two piping bags with a no.10 piping tip for the red and pale pink meringue. Then, prepare 3 more piping bags without tips in pale pink, black, and white.
Step 6: Make the Santas
Following the pictures, pipe a white circle for the base. Then, pipe a red body onto each circle. Use pale pink meringue to pipe the head. Then, use white meringue to make buttons and mustache. Use pale pink to pipe the nose and ears and black meringue for the eyes. Finally, make the hat with more red meringue.
Step 7: Bake
Bake the Santas for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Step 8: Cool
Turn off the heat and let the Santas cool inside the oven for 2 hours until crisp.
📝Variations
- Meringue Snowmen: Use white and black meringue to make snowmen with button eyes and mouths.
If you love festive treats like these, then try our Christmas tree macarons.
🥄 Equipment
- Large pot
- Heat-proof bowl
- Piping bags
- Baking sheet
🥫 Storage
Store these meringues in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks at room temperature. For longer storage, freeze them for up to a month in an air-tight, freezer-safe container.
What to Serve with Santa Meringue Cookies
Serve these cookies with milk, coffee, tea, or even hot chocolate. They also make the perfect addition to any holiday dessert table alongside other favorites like cookies, bars, cakes, pies, and the like.
💭 Tips
- Be sure the water is gently simmering and not boiling to avoid scrambling the meringue mixture.
- Stir constantly to avoid scorching.
- A flexible spatula is the best way to ensure all the meringue is mixed and incorporated while it cooks in the double boiler.
⁉️ FAQ
Meringue is a light, airy dessert or dessert topping made with whipped egg whites and sugar.
Yes, they should. Properly made meringues will be crunchy at first bite, then melt in your mouth as you eat them. They should be dry and light and feel hollow.
Meringue is very dry and absorbs moisture readily. If you leave the cookies uncovered for very long, they’ll begin to draw moisture from the air. Always store them in an air-tight container.
🍽 More Recipes
Do you enjoy meringue? Then, these delicious recipes.
🧾Recipe Card
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe so you can find it later.
Santa Meringue Cookies
Equipment
- large pot
- Heat-proof bowl
- piping bags
- baking sheet
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites
- 6 oz sugar
- red food coloring water based gel
- black food coloring water based gel
- pink food coloring water based gel
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 215F or 100C
- Fill a medium pot with at least 1 1/2 inches of water, wait until it boils, then reduce the heat letting the water simmering gently.
- Combine egg whites and sugar in a clean and heat proof bowl.
- Set over steaming water, stirring and scraping constantly using a flexible spatula, until egg whites hold steady at 175°F (79°C), between 8 and 10 minutes.
- Take it off the heat, using an electric mixer whisk until it cools down and gets glossy for 8-10 minutes.
- You can also transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip at high speed until meringue is glossy.
- Prepare red, black, very pale pink (for the body parts) meringue.
- Red and pale pink meringue mixture should have a large piping tip. ( no.10)
- Prepare 3 piping bags (pale pink, black and white) without piping tips ( pale pink again for the nose and ears)
- Pipe little santa claus onto the baking sheet following the steps in the pictures.
- Start with a white circle, pipe red body part in the circle.
- Continue with pale pink meringue, pipe the santa claus’ head.
- Using white meringue, pipe buttons and mustache.
- In 4th step using pale pink, pipe nose and ears. With black meringue add the eyes.
- As the last step make the hat.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 215F.
- Turn off oven and let cookies cool inside oven until crisp, 2 hours.
