Blackberry meringue thumbprint cookies

3
Points®
Total Time
2 hr 45 min
Prep
15 min
Cook
1 hr 30 min
Serves
12
Difficulty
Easy
Forget jam! Fresh blackberries add a burst of juicy sweetness to these crunchy meringue cookies. You can make the cookies up to 2 days in advance, storing them between sheets of wax paper in an air-tight container at room temperature. Simply add the fresh berries to the indentations in the cookies just before you plan to serve them. Cream of tartar is a white powder commonly used in baking that comes from the tartaric acid buildup on the inner walls of wine barrels that is a byproduct of wine fermentation. It adds volume and stability to beaten egg whites and is an ingredient found in many baking powders.

Ingredients

Egg whites

2 item(s), large, at room temperature

Cream of tartar

tsp

Table salt

tsp

Sugar

½ cup(s)

Confectioners' sugar

¼ cup(s)

Vanilla extract

1 tsp

Blackberries

4 cup(s)

Instructions

  1. Position racks in top and bottom thirds of oven; preheat oven to 225°F. Line two large baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
  2. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer set at high speed, until soft peaks can be formed on turned-off beaters.
  3. Beat in sugar and confectioners’ sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture is stiff and you can feel no granules of sugar when you rub a bit between your fingers. Beat in vanilla extract.
  4. Spoon 12 heaping-tablespoon mounds of meringue on each baking sheet, spacing mounds about 2 inches apart. Use back of a wet teaspoon (or your wet, cleaned thumb) to flatten each meringue a bit, and create an indentation in each cookie without pressing through to baking sheet. Bake until dry, about 1 1/2 hours. Turn off oven and let cookies remain in oven for 1 hour with door closed. Remove baking sheets from oven and cool for 1 hour. Peel meringues off baking sheets; set a fresh blackberry in each indentation.