The discovery that you could use the water from a tin of chickpeas as an egg replacer has been life changing. I had assumed as my son has a severe egg allergy that he would never get to taste meringue but aquafaba has changed that! My first successful attempts at egg free meringues were with this recipe from Lucy’s friendly foods https://lucysfriendlyfoods.com/2015/04/16/more-adventures-in-egg-free-meringue/ and my kids were thrilled with the results. I’ve made them a few times now using flavoured icing sugar which works really well disguising the faint beaniness of the aquafaba. I made these ones as part of an afternoon tea using half the water (1/3 cup) from a tin of chickpeas for chocolate mousse and the other half for the meringues. The mousse is another of Lucy’s recipes and I highly reccomend it! https://lucysfriendlyfoods.com/2015/05/18/light-and-airy-chocolate-mousse/

Egg free flavoured meringues

Ingredients

1/3 cup aquafaba (drain the water from a tin of unsalted chickpeas)

Pinch cream of tartar

Pinch xanthan gum

3/4 cup Sugar and Crumbs black cherry icing sugar sifted (I’ve also used pink lemonade and strawberry milkshake)

Generous squirt of gel colour ( I used Dr Oetker violet)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 120C

Line two baking sheets with baking parchment

Place the aquafaba in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer with the cream of tarter, xanthan gum and gel colour and whisk on the highest setting until it’s lovely and fluffy (can take 10 minutes). You could try it by hand but it would take a lot of whisking!

While still whisking add the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time and whisk till it stands in stiff peaks

Either pipe or spoon the mix onto the baking trays with a little space in between to allow for spreading in the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 120C then reduce the temperature of the oven to 90C and bake for a further hour. Turn the oven off and leave in the oven until it’s cooled completely. I sometimes make them before bed and leave them till morning. 

Store in an airtight container. Best eaten within a day or so. Gorgeous dipped in dairy free chocolate and served with whipped coconut cream but eat quickly before they go smooshy!