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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Hi, We encountered some 1 calorie commercially made meringues in COSTCO in Mexico and not finding them locally we Used Google to find your website. Now we are making them all the time. Our first batch were not totally dry, so we modified the recipe slightly by reducing the sugar to 1/4 cup and making the meringues very small. Now they are indistinguishable from sugar made meringues. By the way so you have any tips on where to buy SWERVE? I bought my first batch through Amazon but it is very expensive.
Swerve has a good store locator and local shops often have it marked down a bit. My local New Seasons carries it.
Hi Carolyn – just about to attempt these and have a question. Do you use a fan oven, or a regular oven. My oven has both options. Your advice would be gratefully received.
I love your recipes, use them constantly and people are amazed they are both gluten and sugar free! Go low carb! I’m always directing folk to your site. Thanks for all you do.
I use a regular oven, although mine has a convection feature.
Hello I’m from Mexico 🙂 I’m having trouble making the meringues, I’m using Superlife as sweetener, I don’t know if they sell it in US, the problem that I’m having is that the “sugar” caramelized in the bottom of the merengue and it sticks to the parchment paper even with coconut oil and I can’t unstick them without broke them.
I honestly don’t know what that is. What’s it made with?
Is stevia
I’m sorry, I don’t use that brand and have never heard of it so I can’t really help.
Is stevia powder, but thank you!! 🙂
Unbelieveavle! I did something unusual: I followed you recipe, even went out to buy Swerve! I LOVE them! I have probably one of the sweetest tooths (or is it “teeth”?!) on the planet. I can eat four pounds of chocolate a day, easily. BUT I am highly carb sensitive, and I know from years of practice and failure that keto works for me, but I miss crunch and sweet. You have just helped me tremendously. I’d never tried Swerve. I will use less than the suggested amount next time, and maybe increase the vanilla a tiny bit. But they were really good. Of course I ate them all in one go. That’s what I do, and that’s how I usually fail after several months of success. So now I will experiment a bit, I have read all the comments and might try some raw cacao nibs dropped on them which will help the sweetness issue as the cacao nibs are a little bitter. We’ll get there! Thanks so much for your blog. I can do this. I know I can!
Oh, PS, I ate some with lemon Chobani (yoghurt) and it was so delicious. I kind of popped a little on the top like icing/frosting (depending on where you live!)
So glad you liked them!
Made with 1/2 tsp powdered stevia. Delicious. This is a keeper.
I used xylitol – cooked them for longer than supposed to, soft and floppy after longer than 2 hours in the oven turned off (door closed).
Very disappointed 🙁
Yes, and that would be the xylitol. That’s why this recipe specifically calls for Swerve. I tried xylitol once and it didn’t work at all.
Thanks for the recipe! I had never had meringues before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I think I may have overcooked them a little as they were pretty crispy through and through. I left them in longer as they were not browning after the required amount of time. I did use Splenda, which may have changed the result. I actually liked them crispy, as it reminded me of a sugar wafer cookie and was really good with icecream, but I would like the try to make them the more authentic (marshmallow) consistency. Do you think the consistency was different because I used Splenda or that I overcooked it? I always have paranoia about undercooking anything with eggs in it, so maybe I went overkill. LOL
It’s definitely the splenda. It doesn’t caramelize (brown) like erythritol would.
I just tried this with truvia… It didn’t work 🙁
Has anyone tried with lakanto?
You need a powdered sweetener so it’s not going to work with either of those.
Fantastic! Do you think that Stevia would work? xXx
No, I don’t think that would work at all.
I did this desert with sugar and, of course, it was perfect. I used cold whites.
Then I give up on sugar and started to eat erythritol. I tried to do this desert with it and I got confused. I have to use cold whites of room temperature whites?
You should always use room temperature egg whites, they whip more easily.
Arg. Thank you. I just made these using a regular meringue recipe and swapped out the sugar for swerve 1:1 and dear god, they’re so sweet they almost burn my mouth. Definitely retrying these with your recipe.
I use 1/2 cup of nuts in these cookies and we love them.
I make these with swerve and add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or unsweetened coconut they taste just like the Coconut Kisses from my Betty Crocker (pre 1958) Cookbook. They are
a real hit. Thanks for all your great recipes.
Mines came out looking perfect but they tasted horrible. It was my first time using stevia, it wasnt using the same brand as your recipe suggested. I think I’ll stick to splenda, stevia taste like black licorice.
My recipe doesn’t use stevia at all. I use Swerve which is erythritol and oligosaccharides. I’d say that’s your problem.
I just finished making these sadly they turned out very dry; not chewy at all 🙁 I was really looking forward to them waiting out the 2hrs…etc. I used Pyure Organic Stevia ingredients are erythritol and stevia extract. I put it in my vitamix to make it into a confectioner type powder.
Pyure is mostly stevia so that is your problem right there. It won’t hold much moisture and won’t have the same consistency as a recipe made with Swerve.
I’m glad I found this. I actually made meringues with the confectioner’s Swerve over the weekend, trying to test a dessert recipe for Passover, but I put waaaaay too much Swerve in there, and it was a disaster. I’ll have to try this instead. Thanks for sharing!
I have yet to place an order for Swerve but do have erythritol, xylitol and stevia powder in the house. I’ve seen so many recipes using Swerve, but would like to use what I have first. So from the notes I’ve read above, I can use erythritol one to one to replace Swerve? Or should it be a mixture of other products? Thanks for all the great recipes, I can hardly wait to make this for dessert soon!
I think you can use the erythritol one-to-one but I would suggest trying to powder it in a coffee grinder first.
Will do, thanks Carolyn!