Recipe: Gluten-Free Lemon Meringues

Last week I wrote a review of Roben Ryberg’s new cookbook – The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Cookbook. I was literally drooling over this cookbook while writing my review, so I only thought it was fitting to dive right into making one of the recipes today when I was stuck inside during the snowstorm.  While I had my eye on some of the Girl Scout cookie replicas, I didn’t have all the ingredients that I needed.  I did, however, have all of the ingredients for the Lemon Meringues.  I immediately got to work mixing up the ingredients.

This cookie recipe only requires three ingredients.  It doesn’t get much more simple than this, folks.

Lemon Meringues

• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. lemon extract

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar until the whites form stiff peaks.  (This will take several minutes, depending upon the temperature of the egg whites and the strength of the mixer.  It takes longer for still peaks to form with the inclusion of sugar than if egg whites were beaten alone.)  The batter will look like marshmallow cream.  Beat in the lemon extract.  Do not under-beat, as the shape of the cookie relies upon the ability of the meringue to hold its shape.
3. Using a piping bag with a large star tip, pipe a small star onto a prepared pan or just drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough onto the pan.  Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bottom edges just begin to brown and the tops look dry.  Let cool on wire racks before serving.

Beating the egg whites & sugar:

Ready to go into the oven (I dropped by teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheet):

Ready to chow down:

Ryberg says in her description at the top of the page that these cookies taste like a lemon cloud.  After sampling numerous cookies, I have to agree!  They have a wonderful lemon flavor & a great crisp to them!  I did happen to eat one before it had cooled all the way and it had a softer, cloud-like texture.  So good!!

If you are looking for a quick and simple, yet impressive cookie to make, this is it!