The French love meringue.  Often, we make cookies out of it for a light treat in the afternoon after children return home from school.  After visiting New Zealand, I came to love the dessert, Pavlova, which is meringue and fruit based.  For the first ten years of his life, my son was allergic to eggs.  He could enjoy none of the delicacies.  Recently, I read about the wonders of aquafaba and decided to try it as an egg replacement.  The results?  Just as delicious as the egg base!

Aquafaba is the liquid that remains after cooking chickpeas until they are tender.  You could cook your own chickpeas from scratch but my recipe uses the liquid from one can of ordinary, store bought.  The cookies are light and as delicious as the ones I’ve made with egg, but these are vegan.

The recipe is as follows: Meringue Cookies

Yields 3 dozen

3/4 cup (roughly) of juice from one can of cooked chickpeas (aquafaba)

1 cup of sugar

1 Tbs rum

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.  Beat aquafaba in a mixer until it begins to form soft peaks.  Add sugar slowly.  Once the meringue is glossy and stiff peaks form when the beater is removed, stop the beater.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Drop spoonful of meringue on to sheet, leaving a dollop or curl at the top.  You could also pipe the meringue with a pastry bag and tip for a fancier look.  Place in the over with the door shut for 15 minutes.  Shut off the oven after 15 minutes and leave in the oven for another 5 minutes.  Remove and cool.