Easter Meringue Nests
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These adorable Easter Meringue Nests, made from fluffy homemade meringue, are baked until perfectly crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside. Finished with a sweetened cream cheese filling and colorful chocolate eggs, this delicious, melt in your mouth treat is perfect for any Easter gathering.
Easy Easter Meringue Nests Recipe
With Easter time on the way, what better way to celebrate than with some delicious homemade meringue Easter nests. These cute little crisp meringues are light and airy, making them the perfect whimsical sweet dessert after a heavy Easter Sunday lunch.
Another great thing about this recipe is that you can make the meringue part of the nests up to a couple days in advance and store them in a dry place at room temperature. Then, on the day you plan on serving them, just pipe in the filling and decorate. That’s a huge time saver when you’re busy preparing other dishes for your Easter feast.
If you love easy Easter dessert recipes, you’ll also want to check out these cute Easter Bunny Oreo Balls and these fun Easter Dirt Cups.
💖 Why We Love This Recipe
- Fun for kids: Let the kiddos pick their favorite color of candy-coated chocolate eggs to decorate the center of each of their own nests.
- Beautiful treats: The pretty pastel colors make these crisp meringue nests a great option for Easter, Mother’s Day, baby showers or any other springtime party.
- Easy recipe: Though making homemade meringue cookies may seem intimidating, they’re really easy to make, using just a handful of basic ingredients.
- Creamy filling: The thing that sets these meringues apart is they’re filled with a cream cheese filling, giving them an extra decadent touch.
🔪 Recommended Tools
- Electric mixer (stand or hand mixer)
- Large mixing bowl
- Silpat (or baking sheet with parchment paper)
- Pastry bag with large star tip
🛒 Ingredients
- White sugar
- Egg whites
- Cream of tartar
- Vanilla paste (or vanilla extract)
- Cream cheese
- Whipping cream
- Powdered sugar
- Chocolate bar
- Mini chocolate Easter eggs
👩🏼🍳How to Make Easter Meringues
Preheat the oven temperature to 175F.
Step 1. Pour cream of tartar into a deep clean mixing bowl and add egg whites. With an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites just until a light foam appears on the surface.
Step 2. Once a foam appears, add all the sugar in 2 tablespoons at a time and beat at high speed until you get a fluffy and dense meringue with stiff peaks.
Step 3. Spoon the meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
Step 4. Pipe the meringue mixture onto a silicone mat or parchment on a baking sheet. Make the bottom layer of the nest, and then one turn of the meringue around the edge to create the sides of the nest.
Tip: Don’t have a pastry bag? No worries! You can use a large zip-top plastic bag instead. Just clip off the very tip of a corner of the bag and insert your star tip.
Step 5. Once you have all the cute nest shape meringues piped, put the baking sheet in the oven and dry the meringue for 1.5-2 hours. Do not open the oven door for the first hour.
Step 6. After an hour, you can check the readiness of the meringue by pressing it with your finger. If it is too soft or bouncy, then bake meringues for another 30-60 minutes.
Note: Keep in mind that the time it takes to dry the meringues will depend on the thickness of the meringue and on their overall size.
Step 7. When the meringue is almost ready, make the cream cheese filling by mixing together the cream cheese, whipping cream, vanilla paste and powdered sugar in a large bowl. You should have a fluffy, thick cream.
Step 8. Spoon the cream cheese mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
Step 9. Pipe the filling in the center of each meringue nest.
Step 10. Decorate your cute meringue nests with grated chocolate and place a few mini chocolate eggs in the center. Serve and enjoy!
How To Store Meringue Nest
Store these meringue cookies in a dry place, at room temperature in an airtight container. Otherwise they may become sticky. Since the filling contains cream, it is best to eat these within two days.
Variations:
- Candy eggs: For the chocolate mini eggs, you can use mini cadbury, malted milk eggs or even large jelly beans.
- Filling: In place of the cream cheese filling, you can use Chocolate Mousse, White Chocolate Mousse, lemon curd or any other type of creamy filling you prefer.
- Toppings: These meringues make an elegant dessert any time of the year. Just add fresh berries or other fresh fruit instead of the chocolate Easter eggs and you’ll have a great dessert for any occasion.
- Oreo crumbs: Instead of chocolate shavings, you can use crushed up Oreo or other chocolate wafer type cookie.
- Colored Meringue: Change the color of the meringues with just a drop of gel food coloring. If you want pastel colors, make sure to just add the tiniest amount.
Easter Meringue Nests Recipe Tips
- The most important thing to remember is you should always start out with a clean dry bowl. If there’s any type oily or greasy residue in the bowl, the meringue will not lift and become stiff enough to keep its shape.
- When making meringues, always use the freshest eggs you can find, and make sure there are no bits of egg yolk in the egg whites. Egg yolks contain fat and will prevent the whites from fluffing up.
- In order to get that beautiful glossy texture, don’t skip the cream of tartar. You’ll also want to allow the egg whites to sit until they’re room temperature for about 30 minutes before mixing.
- Don’t rush the drying stage! This is where the crispy magic happens. No peeking for the first hour.
- To make sure you have uniform sized nests, trace a circle on the underside of the parchment paper. Flip it over and use it as a piping guide.
You sure can! Just add other extracts with the vanilla or substitute the vanilla all together with other extract flavors. Mint, lemon, orange, strawberry, coconut or almond extracts will all work well with this recipe.
The outside of the meringues will feel dry and crispy to the touch. They should easily lift off the paper or Silpat and will seem light and airy.
Want More Easter Dessert Recipes?
- Easter Egg Nests
- Easter Snack Mix
- Easter Crack
- Easter Fruit Pizza
- Easter Egg Brownies
- Easy Easter Dip
- Carrot Patch Easter Cupcakes
Easter Meringue Nests
Equipment
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
- silicone mat optional
- Piping tip
Ingredients
- 1/3 tsp cream of tartar
- 3 egg whites
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 4 tbsp powdered sugar
- 2 ounces sweet or semi-sweet chocolate grated
- 30 mini Cadbury eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven temperature to 175F.
- Pour cream of tartar into a deep clean mixing bowl and add egg whites. Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites just until a light foam appears on the surface.1/3 tsp cream of tartar, 3 egg whites
- Once a foam appears, add all the sugar in 2 tablespoons at a time and beat at high speed until you get a fluffy and dense meringue with stiff peaks.1 cup white sugar
- Spoon the meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Pipe meringue mixture onto a silicone mat or parchment on a baking sheet. Make the bottom layer of the nest, and then one turn of the meringue around the edge to create the sides of the nest.
- Once you have the nest shape meringues piped, put the baking sheet in the oven and dry the meringue for 1.5-2 hours. Do not open the oven door for the first hour.
- After an hour, you can check the readiness of the meringue by pressing it with your finger. If it is too soft or bouncy, then bake for another 30-60 minutes. Note: Keep in mind that the time it takes to dry the meringues will depend on the thickness of the meringue and on their overall size.
- When the meringue is almost ready, make the cream cheese filling by mixing together the cream cheese, whipping cream, vanilla paste and powdered sugar in a large bowl, until you have a fluffy, thick cream.1/2 cup cream cheese, 1/2 cup whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla paste, 4 tbsp powdered sugar
- Spoon the cream cheese mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
- Pipe the filling in the center of each meringue nest.
- Decorate your cute meringue nests with grated chocolate and place a few mini chocolate eggs in the center. Serve and enjoy!2 ounces sweet or semi-sweet chocolate, 30 mini Cadbury eggs
Notes
Nutrition
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