Meringue Fruit Cups

More About This Recipe

• Quick, colorful meringue cups hold whipped cream and beautiful summer fruit. This summery recipe for colorful, fruit-filled meringue bowls is like inviting Carmen Miranda for dinner, all bright and vibrant and begging to be danced upon. Grab the maracas. Prepare the merengue music. It’s fruity meringues for dessert! First, a few tips for making perfect meringue bowls:
• It just makes your life easy. No cracking eggs. No separating yolk from other stuffs. Give yourself a break, buy the carton of ready-to-go egg whites.
• Before you add ANYTHING to the egg whites, whip them to a nice, soft peak. You want ‘em whippy—really whippy—before sprinkling salt or cream of tartar into the bowl.
• To keep the meringue light and fluffy enough to pipe into bowls, you need the egg whites maxed out fluffy. So whip 'em until stiff and peaky.
• Don’t even think about using any other kind of sugar. Superfine sugar will dissolve right into the mix, making it so you just need a few quick turns of the egg whites. You won’t over-whip the meringue, and makes your meringue cups gorgeous.
• If you don’t get those eggs to a nice, stiff peak, you’ll have to beat the meringue so long that it’ll be affected by moisture, making it soft and weepy.
• When your meringue is ready, use Betty Crocker™ gel food colorings to draw lines up the edges of a large pastry bag. Keep the bag wide open by holding it in your hands near the center to keep it from collapsing and mixing the colors.
• Use a large, scoopy spatula to quickly transfer the meringue into the center of the bag.
• To make the best meringue bowls, you’ll have to pipe quickly. Warm hands wrapped around the icing bag can melt the meringue! Start in the center and pipe outward, creating a 2-1/2" to 3” spiral outward. Then spiral the meringue up around the edges to make the “bowl”. Tip: Although it’s easy to get all crazy about making perfect bowls, I discovered that they actually look cute when they’re just a freeform swirl with sides, so just go fast and don't try to be perfect. Immediately pop the meringues in the oven and don’t peek for 2 hours! Opening the oven can make the meringue fall. Since the edges of the bowls are thicker than the base, they cook slower and will fall like a boss should you open the oven midway through. Let ‘em cool. Meringues crisp as they cool. So, give them ample time to cool and dry out before filling. Then add the whipped cream and all the colorful fruits and berries you want. Then, grab a spoon and dive into those meringues. Merengue dancing encouraged.
• Beat the heat with these summer treats.