Best Hazelnut Meringue Kisses Recipes

HAZELNUT MERINGUES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Place hazelnuts in single layer on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F. for 10 minutes or until skins begin to loosen and hazelnuts turn golden brown.
• Remove hazelnuts from oven; place on towel. Wrap towel around hazelnuts; let stand 10 minutes. Rub hazelnuts with towel to remove as much skin as possible.
• In food processor bowl with metal blade, combine hazelnuts and powdered sugar. Process until fine powder forms. Set aside.
• Reduce oven temperature to 200°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In large bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer at medium speed until foamy. Beat in cream of tartar. Increase speed to high; beat until soft peaks form. Slowly beat in superfine sugar. Continue beating until egg whites are glossy and stiff. Beat in almond extract. Quickly fold in nut powder.
• Place meringue mixture in large decorating bag or resealable gallon plastic bag fitted with 1/2-inch open star tip. Pipe meringue into star shapes onto paper-lined cookie sheets.
• Bake at 200°F for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until crisp. Cool on cookie sheet for 15 minutes or until completely cooled. Gently remove from parchment paper.

HAZELNUT MERINGUE COOKIES

Steps:

• Line the back of a 12" x 18" rimmed sheet pan or a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 225F with the rack centered.
• Prepare meringue according to the recipe.
• Meanwhile, roughly chop 1 cup of hazelnuts. If you're planning to pipe your meringue with a piping tip, you will need to chop the hazelnuts very fine so they do not clog up the tip.
• Add chopped hazelnut pieces to the whipped meringue.
• Carefully, with folding motion (going under, and over) incorporate the hazelnuts into the meringue with minimal amount of strokes.
• Fit a pastry bag with a large french open star tip and fill the bag with hazelnut meringue.
• Pipe the stars onto parchment paper in 25-30 mounts spacing them about 1- 1.5 inches apart OR use two spoons to spoon the meringues. Sprinkle meringues with chopped hazelnuts if you wish. You can make the mounts as even or rough as you want.
• Bake in preheated to 225F oven for 2 hours. To check if the hazelnut meringues are done drying, remove one meringue and break it in half. Let cool and check the center. If the center is dry, the meringues are done.Turn off the oven, leave the oven door ajar by putting a wooden spoon in the crack. Allow to completely cool.

HAZELNUT MERINGUE KISSES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225°F. and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit a large pastry bag with a 1/2-inch plain tip.
• In a bowl with am electric mixer beat whites with cream of tartar and salt until they just hold soft peaks. Add sugar in a stream and beat in vanilla and espresso and cocoa powders, beating until meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks.
• Working quickly, fold ground hazelnuts into meringue gently but thoroughly and fill pastry bag with meringue. Pipe 42 dots (each about 1/2 teaspoon) of meringue onto parchment 1/2 inch apart and top each dot with a whole hazelnut (meringue dots will anchor nuts). Pipe meringue over hazelnuts, encasing them, to form cookies about 1 inch wide and 1 3/4 inches high.
• Bake cookies in middle and lower third of oven, switching positions of baking sheets halfway through baking, 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until meringue os form on the outside and pale golden (cookies will fall during baking). Remove parchment with cookies from baking sheets and cool on racks (cookies will continue to crisp as they cool). Carefully peel cookies off parchment.
• In a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate, stirring until smooth, and remove from het. Dip top half of each cookie in melted chocolate, transferring cookies, chocolate sides up, to a wax-paper-lined tray. Chill cookies until chocolate is hardened, about 15 minutes. Cookies keep, arranged in layers between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container and chilled, 5 days.