Friday I’ve heard for the first time about aqua faba and it was like a whole new world opened to me.
Aqua faba (“water-bean“) is the liquid of canned chickpeas and can be used as an egg replacement in a lot of recipes like mayonnaise, chocolate mousse, waffles, espresso foam, cakes, and of course meringues.
It sounded all a bit strange to me but I was very intrigued by the whole idea and I also had a glass jar of chickpeas in the cupboard so I immediately went over to ‘action‘.
Now my family loves meringues, pavlovas and eton mess, so you can be sure they know their meringues, especially my little foodies. I decided not to tell them that I used the aqua faba but just made them, and left them in the kitchen to cool down. My 5 year old ate half of them (I wasn’t looking) before they could find there way to the tin box to store them and my 12 year old didn’t believe that they were made without egg whites. I have to say they loved them so much that my plan to make an eton mess with raspberries and whipped coconut cream fell in the water, because by the end of the evening I only had a few left just enough to make a photo!!
This recipe is a little adaptation from the recipe I have found online. It is foolproof, not too sweet and yummy.
Ingredients :
- 125 ml aqua faba ( the liquid of a can or jar of chickpeas), the liquid in my jar was just enough
- 200 gr icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon of lemon
- 1 teaspoon of corn starch
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla (extract or powder)
Directions:
Preheat the oven at 100 C°. It is important that the temperature is so low because rather than baking the little meringues you dry them in the oven so they become crispy all the way through.
Pour off the aqua faba in a mixing bowl and beat at a high speed until it is fluffy but not to stiff.
Add the sugar gradually (I did it in 4 times) and continue beating for 10 minutes until it forms small peaks.
Add the lemon, cornstarch and vanilla extract and beat another few minutes until you have peaks again. My grandmother told me always that it was ready if you could hold it upside down and it stayed in the bowl.
Put baking parchment on the baking tray and pipe the mixture on it in little rounds. If you don’t have a piping bag just spoon little rounds on the baking tray. Bake for 2.5 h in the oven , but keep an eye on it!
Remove from the oven , let them cool down and store them in an airtight container. Humidity is not their best friend so if you leave them uncovered they’ll go chewy.
You can eat the vegan meringues just like that or make a nice Eton mess, glue 2 together with some chocolate, sprinkle them over ice cream or… ideas enough if they make the box 😉
Have fun baking!
Credits: First picture by Elly Verduyckt, Illustration & Lettering on pictures by Linda Dieschbourg, last picture from Call Me Cupcake.