Passover Coffee Meringue Cookies

Passover Coffee Meringue Cookies

These are delicate wisps of coffee essence in a crisp sugary cookie that is a light and lovely way to end the holiday meal. They take a while to cook, always in a very cool oven, but are easy and well worth the effort. They’ll keep quite a while in an airtight container. They make a great foil for fresh cut strawberries. In Hebrew, the word chai means both life and 18, so the significance of using 36 coffee beans in this recipe to make as many cookies is that you wish everyone twice the life!

This recipe makes 36 cookies.

Passover Coffee Meringue Cookies Ingredients: 
4 large egg whites 
1/4 tsp salt 
1 cup sugar 
3 tablespoons ground coffee, pulverized to a powder 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
36 coffee beans

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 250°F. 
Place racks equidistant from one another in the oven. 
Use nonstick pans or cover two baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. 
In a large bowl, beat egg whites with salt until foamy. (If using an electric mixer, do this on high speed.) 
Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. 
Gently stir in the powdered coffee and the vanilla extract. 
Using a large spoon, drop spoonfuls of batter onto the baking sheet and top each with a coffee bean. 
Bake until dry, about two hours. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar slightly, and let the meringues "bake" for another hour. 
Remove the pans from the oven and carefully remove each cookie, one at a time to avoid breaking. Let the cookies cool completely on wire racks.