Grain-Free Meringues: Peppermint Snowballs

Peppermint snowballs are meringue cookies that will make a great addition to your grain-free Christmas cookie tray. Meringues are a great idea because they are already grain-free, so they don’t require any substitutions. There are lots of great meringue recipes available (like this one – well, really 3! – from Against All Grain) online, but I wanted something Christmas-y. I decided to try peppermint meringues. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find any organic peppermint extract though. My local health food store didn’t carry any and Whole Foods was sold out (and of course the big box stores had extract loaded with dye and artificial flavors). Then it dawned on me (duh!) – my Young Living peppermint essential oil! It’s food grade and totally pure and natural. It ended being the perfect ingredient to make this holiday treat come together!

This recipe is grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and corn-free, and Paleo and GAPS-legal.

Peppermint Snowballs

Ingredients

• Egg whites from 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1  pinch of sea salt
• 1 TBS (gluten-free) vanilla extract
• 2 drops of Peppermint oil (use only food-grade essential oil!!!! – get some here)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Put a few inches of water in a saucepan and bring to boil on the stove top, and reduce to a simmer.
3. Combine egg whites, honey, salt, vanilla, and peppermint oil in a mixing bowl.
4. Place mixing bowl over the saucepan and mix ingredients well with a hand mixer (or by hand with the beaters from a stand mixer) for about 5 minutes, until it thickens.
5. Remove from heat and continue to beat (either continue with the hand mixer, or move to a stand mixer) until stiff peaks form. (I always forget how long this takes, especially without a stand mixer. You want to make sure that the peaks stay when you lift up a beater with the mixture on it. This should take about 10 minutes, but can take about 20 or so if you are using a hand mixer)
6. Spoon batter onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 2 hours, then turn the oven off and keep the meringues in the oven for another hour without opening the door.
8. Remove from the oven. You’ll want to make sure that they are hard (you should be able to tap them on the counter, and they shouldn’t be sticky), but light and airy.
9. Enjoy!