Part of my problem may have been my sweetener. For the peppermint meringues, I attempted to use powdered xylitol and although they LOOKED fantastic, they never firmed up enough to be removed from the parchment even after hours of baking. You had to scrape them off with a spoon, which my kids actually did quite happily, because they tasted great. My other problem is likely the fact that I never wanted to just make plain meringues, I wanted something fancified (also not a word, but it will suffice for now). I added cocoa powder for chocolate meringues and deflated my entire batch of beaten egg whites. I added a peppermint extract that was made with oil and, again, deflated my egg whites. You get the picture. I sometimes focus so much on coming up with something NEW and DIFFERENT that I don’t just try my hand at the basics.
So. Shannon has done the work for me and I love her dearly for this. I tried them myself this afternoon, following her method almost to the letter, and they turned out fantastic. They are crisp on the outside while being a little moist and chewy on the inside. They do get a little browned on the tips, so I think I need to play around with oven temps and baking times. And unlike Shannon, I didn’t find that I needed to leave them in the oven for hours to crisp up. But these are very minor tweaks. It should be noted here that we both used Swerve for our sweetener and as Swerve contains a few things other than erythritol (oligosaccharides), I can’t guarantee the results with any other kind of sweetener. But this is a really, truly auspicious beginning. And I have a lot of ideas with which to use this recipe. I mean a LOT! So stay tuned, as you are sure to see many renditions of Shannon’s wonderful meringues on my blog.
Shannon’s Sugar-Free Meringues (Low Carb and Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites, room temperature
- 6 tbsp Swerve sweetener, or other powdered erythritol
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Arrange oven racks on second lowest and second highest positions.
- In clean glass or metal bowl, combine egg whites, Swerve, vanilla, cream of tartar and salt. Beat on medium high until medium stiff peaks form and mixture becomes somewhat glossy. Do not beat until stiff.
- Spoon or pipe mixture into 20 to 24 large meringues.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes at 250F. Then reduce oven temperature to 200F and continue to bake for another 18 to 20 minutes, until crisp and tips are just starting to brown.
- Turn off oven and let meringues it inside for 2 hours or longer.
- Remove and carefully peel off parchment.
Notes
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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I made these today, and I can say that Truvia works well. I think I put too much in, though. I had six egg whites left over from another recipe, so I used 7.5 tablespoons of Truvia. Maybe I’m just not used to eating sweet things anymore, but I think mine turned out too sweet. However, that’s not stopping me from wanting to eat every last one. They are delicious. Next time, I will probably use less Truvia. For 4 egg whites, I would probably try about 5 tablespoons.
Just for the record, using 5 T for 4 egg whites is exactly the same porportion as using 7.5 T for 6 egg whites. If the latter is too sweet, the former will be too.
this looks wonderful
Carolyn, you just made my father’s day. He has always loved, loved, loved meringues, but he’s diabetic, so hasn’t had them in ages. I sent him the link to these. His response? I’ll buy the Swerve! They look fantastic!
Hey Lisa…have him buy swerve by going through the links on my recipe. He can get a 15% discount if he uses DREAM15 and goes through me. 🙂
Thank you! These are wonderful. I read this blog post a while ago http://jenncuisine.com/2011/01/meringues-and-double-creme/ and have been wanting to make meringues and do something similar.
Last night, I did! I made these lovely cookies, whipped up some cream, and then dipped them in the whipped cream. Seriously delicious! Thank you!!!!
I just love meringue cookies!
Those look delicious! I made some chocolate meringues with Swerve a while back. They came out great! My recipe is on my blog here:
http://craftautobiography.blogspot.com/2012/02/chocolate-meringue-cookies.html
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe…another treat which doesn’t compromise flavour for healthy eating !
oh i can’t wait to try these!
Glad you finally found a good recipe! They look great!
Yeah Shannon. This is impressive. So glad Carolyn was able to share your treats with us.
There you go on finding your meringues. Glad you could share together. They look beautiful.
I love meringues, but they are still relatively new to me! These look perfect!
How fun 🙂
I made some this morning because the kids wanted them again. This time I only added 1/4 tsp vanilla…I like it better because I thought the vanilla may have been a bit strong in the last ones. But it could just be my memory too. Also, I added sweet leaf stevia (chocolate) extract this time. I don’t know if I can really detect the chocolate taste, but it didn’t affect them at all…so I’m guessing you could use the peppermint variety of this!! Just an FYI.
Thanks, Carolyn!! Oh…and one more thing…I have your No bake peanut butter chocolate bars in my refrigerator right now!!! YUM!
Hi, Shannon. these look amazing. I just made a batch last night using Powdered Xylitol and they looked amazing but ended up just being a dense sponge! very similar to Carolyn’s experience. I’m desperate to succeed at these! So did you replace the swerve completely with stevia? we don’t get swerve in South Africa so if i could use stevia then ill try another batch tonight 😀
You need erythritol. Xylitol is a disaster for these. It doesn’t have to be Swerve brand, though.
Thanks Carolyn
I can get erythritol. so ill try with that first. 🙂 thank you for all the advice.
Welcome! Erythritol will work much better than xylitol.
Did you use liquid or pwdered sweet leaf
AHHH! This is awesome!! Sugar free??? Wowza, these must have dropped straight out of heaven!
I have had a few failed attempts at these! So excited to come across this recipe. . .definitely going to give them a try!
Wow, these meringues look perfect! Oh so light and airy! I love that they are gluten-free too… I’m always searching for delicious gluten-free desserts.
Hi, I just made these and they were so bad I nearly cried! I think I used the wrong sweetener. Can anyone tell me if Swerve is available in the UK, if not, what a close alternative would be?
what kind of sweetener did you use? Was it erythritol-based? I can really only guarantee the results of these with Swerve, and I don’t think it’s available in the UK yet. I think ZSweet or Truvia might be your best bet besides Swerve, but I can’t guarantee how they will turn out.
How did these ones turn out? too soft? Too hard?
Thanks for your reply Carolyn. I used Splenda and they tasted like polystyrene ! I will try to find swerve online, if not I will buy Truvia or similar.
If you go through the Swerve link in my posts and you use DREAM15 you can get 15% off by directly ordering it from them. I can’t say for sure that they ship to the UK, though.
I definitely can’t guarantee results with a non-erythritol based sweetener. Splenda and erythritol are very different creatures in terms of ingredients and crystalline structure. And I really do NOT like the taste of Splenda.
Which rack do you put them on?
You can order through amazon
Truvia doesn’t work, I used that and the fluff liquefied and I still tried to bake it and the end result was very funky.
Good to know!
I ordered my swerve and erithrytol off Amazon. Arrived within a week and was cheaper than the grocery store.
I made them with granular Swerve. They turned out grainy. I whipped them for a very, very, very long time and still grainy. Actually, I made the meringue as a pie topping. Because the egg whites, granular Swerve, and cream of tartar was still grainy after a very long time of whipping in my stand mixer, I added mint flavoring, sugar free chocolate chips, and toasted pecans. I baked them as I would traditional baked meringues. They were very light and crisp. They break easily. My husband suggested placing the whole cookie in your mouth instead of taking a bite. Be sure to hold your hand or napkin under your chin when taking a bite. Acceptable…But, can’t compare to the real thing.
Need help with crystallization of Swerve when making meringues.
Thanks!
Perhaps try powdered swerve, does not get as grainy
I haven’t tried using Swerve or any other non-sugar sweetener. But I DID run into the graininess issue using regular, granulated sugar. A very easy “fix” was to put the sugar in a blender (or food processor, if you have one) and wiz it up for about a minute on high speed. The sugar came out VERY fine and no more grainy texture either in the mix or in the finished meringue. A sweet success!!
Stevia or natvia or monk fruit sweetener?????? I’m going to try these
Natvia is your best option.
When you say powdered Swerve, do you mean the confectioner’s sugar variety, or the granulated? I have to order it, so I want to make sure I get the right one!
The confectioner’s Swerve. It’s good stuff!
I used the confectioner’s one. The swerve in Canada is wayyyyyy to concentrated to put 6 table spoons! I put 2 tablespoons and it is almost too much! Good luck!
I wish I read your comment before I made the. Mine look beautiful…but wayyyyyy too sweet to eat. I live in Canada and used Swerve too. I’m thinking to try again with 1.5 tbsps.
Ashley,
Did you try again with 1.5 Tbsp? I’m in Canada too and would like to try making these! TIA
I tried with 1.5 tbsp of powdered swerve. It wasn’t sweet enough. I will try 4 tbsp next time.
Powdered Swerve is definitely the way to go. Great consistency and taste! Thanks for the recipe!
You mention a marshmallow like consistency??? Can you please figure out how to make sugar free rice crispie squares??? I’m dying for some!!
Well, the problem with that is the rice crisps are not low carb! But if we’re aiming for just sugar-free, then it might be possible…
Doesn’t Atkins carry low carb cereals? I’ve made crispy squares using all sorts of cold cereals. If the marshmallow recipe works I’d definitely try making crispy treats with low carb cereals.
What about the marshmallow consistency and use crunched up pork rinds instead of rice crispies?
Whoa.. Stacy.. Please post the recipe for the pork rind marshmallow bars.
I’m trying to use more pork rinds in my diet.
Thanks,
Donna
I used maple flavor and just 4 tbsp of swerve, came out perfect but did have to leave in oven longer nut these are wonderful. Thank you
Should this work the same for making a meringue pie?
Yes. Use my search box for “meringue pie” and you will see how I’ve done it.
Turn off oven and let meringues it inside for 2 hours or longer. What does it mean?
It means you turn off the oven and let the meringues sit inside the oven. You don’t take them out.