Valentine’s day is two weeks away!

If you think I’m starting to plan early…look at stores like Target. They had Valentine’s Day stuff out two days after Christmas! Geeze.

Anyway, I thought these were lovely, light, and dainty cookies to celebrate with the ones you love.

You can’t beat an all egg white cookie! 😉 Yes you can…that’s how you make them. Bahaha!

Please, forgive my awful joke.

I hope that none of you have any broken hearts…like this poor lad:

If you do, know that…

🙂 I hope you have fun with these cookies. They can be made into any shape that you can come up with!

Yay for pink/red/hearts/love season! 🙂

P.S. Don’t you just love all of the vanilla bean specks in these cookies???

Valentine’s Meringue Cookies

adapted from Cooking Light Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• red food coloring
• sprinkles

How-To

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. Set aside 2 baking sheets covered in silpat mats.
3. Put 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl.
4. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add it to the sugar.
5. Stir well with a whisk.
6. Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand mixer.
7. Beat on high until foamy.
8. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time.
9. Beat until stiff peaks form.
10. Gradually add the vanilla bean sugar and vanilla extract.
11. Beat until just combined. The mixture should look like marshmallow cream.
12. Scoop the meringue mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton tip or a ziploc bag with a hole cut in one of the corners.
13. Squeeze even meringues out (about a tablespoon in size) onto the baking sheets. Be sure to leave space between them for expansion.
14. Bake for about 35 minutes or until light and crispy.
15. Cool on the pan.
16. Store in an airtight container.

Servings: about 50 heart cookies