Meringues

Classic meringue recipe from Bernadette Hogg, NZ House & Garden’s food writer and baking expert. Bernadette made this meringue recipe at the NZ House & Garden reader event held at the Jo Malone flag ship store in Auckland's Britomart.

2 egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Pre-heat the oven to 120 C.  Line 2-3 baking trays with baking paper. Place the egg white, sugar and vinegar into a bowl, start beating and add the boiling water,  beat the mixture until stiff.  Add the baking powder and vanilla essence, beating until glossy and quite stiff (should hold when a spoonful of mixture is tipped upside down).
Pipe or place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking trays.  Cooking time will depend on the size of the meringues made.  Small meringues should take 30-40 minutes and larger 1 ½ hours to cook.  (Check that they are dry in the middle using a knife).  Cool and store in an airtight container or the freezer for long term storage.