Recipe: Chickpea Meringue Magic!

So just recently I saw one of my favorite vegan bloggers, Charis Mitchell at Floral Frosting, post a KICK-ASS macaron recipe! That stuff is hard to do because macarons consist of plenty of egg whites. So I wondered, how in the hell!? As I continued reading the recipe I saw this crazy thing – CHICKPEA WATER. The stuff in canned chickpeas. Could it be?! Ms. FF credited Goose Wohlt for this fabulous discovery on the facebook page, “What Fat Vegans Eat” and later on “Vegan Meringue – Hits and Misses.” I had to get in on this action stat!

So after having the great opportunity to join the many other vegans experimenting with this new chickpea water escapade, I noticed many had already perfected this mixture along with marshmallows and pies! I am using too many exclamation points!! Well, I reviewed many, but the awesome Kelly Peloza at Seitan Beats Your Meat had a video tutorial of the making of meringue for a pie/cookies. HUZAAH!

Below is the isolated ingredients and instructions for the meringue cookies by Kelly Peloza:

Meringue:
1 15 ounce can chickpeas
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely ground sugar*
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
*Grind granulated sugar in a food processor so it’s somewhere between granulated and powdered sugar.

• Preheat oven to 200°F

• Pour the liquid from the can of chickpeas into the bowl of a stand mixer (or use electric hand mixers…but you don’t want to do this by hand!).

• Add the cream of tartar.

• Whip the bean juice with the whisk attachment until it starts to thicken.

• Gradually add the sugar and vanilla and continue whipping. This process took me 7-8 minutes, but I’ve read that it can take up to 15 or 20 minutes.

You’ll want to keep it going on high speed until the mixture is the consistency of thick whipped cream. If it’s gloopy, your meringue will deflate. A spoonful of meringue at the proper consistency will not drip if you hold it upside down.

• Dollop meringue onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 200°F for 2

• Turn off the oven and let dry with the oven door cracked for a couple of hours.

My progress photos- start of the mixing!

Foam success- continue mixing!

Added sugar and some stiffness began to occur!

Upside down stiff test!- CHECK.

Ready to pipe!

I could cry…so beautiful

All done after 2 hours and 15-30 minutes of resting.

Many many thank yous to the fabulous people at both What Fat Vegans Eat, Vegan Meringue – Hits and Misses, Charis Mitchell at Floral Frosting, Kelly Peloza at Seitan Beats Your Meat and lastly, the almighty Goose Wohlt. Fighting against cruelty- honestly!