Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies

by Dorothy Reinhold on October 19, 2017


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Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies — a simple almond-scented meringue piped in the shape of ghosts solves your Halloween party dessert needs. Make them spooky or horror — your choice.

spider fascinator hat on dorothy reinhold of shockinglydelicious-com. She stands against a white lattice fence.Surely you’ve picked your costume for Halloween, right? I have a little scary spider hat that I like to wear. It’s more of a fascinator than a hat, but it gets the job done — to creep out anyone who is at the door when I answer it.

Even more than my freaky fascinator, though, I’m known for my ghoulish sweets and Halloween foods. I’ve scared many a classroom party with these…

Not to rest on our past laurels, though, we’re back today with the easiest, sweetiest (yes, that can be a word), lightest little Halloween treats ever to hit your party table.

These are going to look so cute scaring the rest of the dessert goodies away.

How to make Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies

ingredients for halloween ghost meringue cookies on shockinglydelicious-comThey’re so easy to make. Gather your ingredients (chase away any spiders!), whip some egg whites to oblivion and sweeten with sugar and some almond extract.

Hand holding pastry bag piping the halloween haunted ghost cookies on shockinglydelicious.com

Fill a pastry bag with the meringue mixture and pipe it out into the shape of ghost bodies. If you don’t have a pastry bag, that’s OK, just spoon the meringue into a zipper-top bag and snip a corner off to create your own makeshift pastry bag. Two things: (1) I didn’t put a piping tip on the bag because I liked the way it came right out of the coupler; and (2) don’t mind my stained piping bag. It’s perfectly clean, just discolored from use. “Use what you have” continues to be my motto! 

A pastry bag pipes arms of meringue onto ghost bodies, which sit on a parchment paper-lined baking sheeton-shockinglydelicious-com

First pipe all the bodies, so you get the hang of it, and then pipe the arms. For arms, you sort of pipe a bit out and then lift the bag away, which creates the arm effect. Don’t worry if an arm sags down…that might make it look more real!

Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies are piped out and lined up on a baking sheetBefore baking, the meringue is glossy and white, like above. You will bake them low and slow, and the meringue will lose the gloss but remain white. If you bake them at a higher temp, you risk them browning, which kind of ruins the ghost effect, in my opinion.

3 haunted halloween ghost cookies with googly eyes against a black background on shockinglydelicious.com

The kids can even get in on the action with placing the eyes or faces, and the older ones can pipe the meringue. See examples below the recipe ⇓ for additional ways to decorate the cookies!

Whether they’re for your own family, for the neighborhood block party or your kid’s classroom, let’s make some Haunted Halloween Ghost Cookies, shall we?

Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 4 hours, 45 minutes

Yield: 24 cookies

Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies

Haunted Halloween Ghost Cookies -- a simple almond-scented meringue piped in the shape of ghosts solves your Halloween party dessert needs. Make them spooky or horror -- your choice.

Ingredients

  • 3 egg whites, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • Pinch of table salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla if you don’t like almond)
  • Scant 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • .
  • Face makings
  • Icing gel tubes (black, red, white and any other colors you like)
  • Candy eyes

Directions

  1. Heat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Make sure the oven rack is in the middle slot. Line a baking sheet (cookie sheet) with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Add the granulated sugar to a blender and whirl it a bit (5-10 seconds) until it is finely ground but not powdered; this will make it into superfine sugar, which combines more easily with the egg whites. Set aside.
  3. For best results, use a stand mixer. Make sure your bowl and beaters are scrupulously clean and dry, for best loft on your meringue. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add the salt and almond extract, increase the speed to medium-high, and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the superfine sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue beating until the meringue makes stiff, glossy peaks. (You can test this by stopping the mixer and lifting the beater out slowly to see if it makes peaks, and whether they are floppy or stiff. If they are floppy, beat a bit longer and check again. This might take a total of 5-8 minutes.) Stop the beater.
  4. Using a sifter or a strainer, sift the confectioners’ sugar into the meringue (this is to remove any lumps). Using a scrupulously clean and dry rubber spatula, gently fold the confectioners’ sugar into the meringue only until combined. For puffiest ghosts, do not fold any more than is necessary or overmix it.
  5. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag. (Or, if you don’t have one, DIY with a large zipper-top plastic bag. After filling it with meringue, snip 1/4-1/2 inch off one bottom corner tip of the bag. Voila -- a make-your-own piping bag!)
  6. Holding the bag upright, squeeze gently to make a vertical stack of 3 graceful, white blobs of meringue onto the parchment for each ghost. You might try it like this: pipe a base, then atop that a slightly smaller middle, and then atop that a final curled top. It’s a bit like constructing a snowman from the ground up. Pipe 24 meringue ghosts onto the baking sheet.
  7. Bake the meringue ghosts for 2 hours, or until crisp. This low-and-slow technique ensures they will get crisp throughout yet remain white. Warning: If you try to speed it up by raising the oven temperature, you’ll have brown ghosts. If the meringues start to color, reduce the oven temperature to 175°F (79°C).) When ghosts are crisp, turn the oven off, leave the door closed, and cool the meringues in the oven for at least 2 hours, or even overnight if you can. (I must say here that my husband prefers these NOT dried for the additional 2 hours. He likes them to be a bit chewy in the center. Suit yourself.)
  8. If you are using gel for the eyes, dot them on. If you are using the candy eyes, dot a bit of gel on as glue, and stick the candy eyes on there. There’s no rule that says you can’t play with your ghost faces, so feel free to use candy eyes AND then make the mouth from gel, or draw a hat on the ghost with gel, or whatever you like! Your kids will delight in this part of the recipe.
  9. Makes 24 ghosts.

Notes

Note: Why are we asking for “scrupulously clean” and dry bowl, beaters and spatula? Any oil residue from a prior recipe will reduce the loft of your meringue. And if we’re going to make meringue, we want it impossibly fluffy, don’t we?

Recipe source: Dorothy Reinhold | Shockingly Delicious

https://www.shockinglydelicious.com/halloween-ghost-meringue-cookies/

Horror decorations

Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookie with orange eyes against a black background on ShockinglyDelicious.comlydelicious-com

For younger parties, you will want to keep them merely spooky, as above.

3 halloween ghost meringue cookies with a variety of eyes against a black backgroundkinglydelicious-comThe kids can decide what kind of faces they want, with candy eyes, gel eyes or angry eyebrows.

But for older parties…

Halloween Ghost meringue cookie stabbed in gut with candy knife against a black backgroundghosts-on-shockinglydelicious-com…you could indulge some people’s love of horror. This guy flopped over in the oven while baking, so I took advantage of that posture to give him a reason to be lying down…

2 white merinague ghost cookies against a black background, and 2 candy knives in the picture

Look how the second ghost appears to be looking on at the carnage, with his arms flung in the air helplessly. 

2 candy decoration knives stuck into 2 white ghost meringue cookies against a black backgrounds-com

As the kids get older, they may like to add a little blood (sugar decorating gel) at the wound site, for gore.

3 white ghost meringue cookies and 3 candy knives against a black background on ShockinglyDelicious.com

…and arrange their creations in a little gory tableau, for fright night.

pin this please!Pin the image below for Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies to your Pinterest board to save this recipe

4 Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies on an orange plate against a black background

haunted-halloween-ghost-meringue-cookie-on-shockinglydelicious-com

This post was first published Oct. 15, 2016 and has been updated for new publication.

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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }

Rachel @ Rachel Cooks October 19, 2016 at 4:28 am

These are SO fun! Love them!

Reply

katerina @ diethood.com October 19, 2016 at 3:24 am

These are the cutest ghosts ever!! My kids will love them!!

Reply

Jocelyn (Grandbaby cakes) October 18, 2016 at 2:12 pm

This is just so spectacular! I love them!

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold October 18, 2016 at 5:01 pm

Jocelyn,
Spectacular…Thank you! I’ll take it!

Reply

Liz @ The Lemon Bowl October 18, 2016 at 2:08 pm

This looks so so cute!! My boys would love these!

Reply

Rony Jahid October 18, 2016 at 1:05 pm

Ha ha, Its so funny & creative also. My baby like these silliest Halloween ghosts. I think I wanna try it in my home for my baby to be happy. So so cute.

Reply

Courtney October 18, 2016 at 12:28 pm

These little ghosts are too cute!

Reply

leslie October 18, 2016 at 12:13 pm

Love all your ghost variations. I made some of these a few back and my kids loved them!

Reply

Jen Reyes October 18, 2016 at 10:44 am

These are so cute and creative!!! I wish I can make it as neat as these! 😀

Reply

Nicole Taggart October 18, 2016 at 9:11 am

those stabbed ones are the coolest! ha

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold October 18, 2016 at 11:17 am

Nicole,
Thanks! I wondered if people might be offended. It’s a little edgy.

Reply

Barbara Schieving October 17, 2016 at 8:53 pm

This are so creative and fun!

Reply

Jennifer @ Show Me the Yummy October 17, 2016 at 2:35 pm

So so SO cute!!

Reply

Serena October 17, 2016 at 2:00 pm

These are so cute! I love them!

Reply

Cricket Plunkett October 17, 2016 at 6:13 am

Those looks so easy to make and so cute! Love that you add almond extract that’s one of my favorite flavors!

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold October 18, 2016 at 11:18 am

Cricket,
Almond extract is my secret weapon against boring flavor!

Reply

Renee Paj October 16, 2016 at 5:56 pm

These are super cute and I love how you can customize them!

Reply

SallyBR October 16, 2016 at 9:17 am

THESE ARE SIMPLE THE BEST!!!!! Dorothy, I cannot believe how cute and perfect they are… I doubt I could pull this…

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold October 16, 2016 at 1:41 pm

Sally,
You COULD pull it off! Once you whip up the meringue, which I know you can do in your KitchenAid mixer, you simply plop or pipe them onto the baking sheet.

Reply

SallyBR October 18, 2016 at 1:11 pm

I just think they require more artistic skill than I have – the ones with the knife stuck on them… oh, my! Too good!

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold October 18, 2016 at 5:05 pm

Sally,
Don’t sell yourself short. If I can do it, YOU can do it. I am not the fancy-fussy cake decorator type. I don’t have that gene!

Reply

Liz October 16, 2016 at 8:00 am

Ha ha! These are the best, silliest Halloween ghosts ever! And so yummy made out of meringue!!

Reply

Arlene Mobley October 16, 2016 at 7:57 am

Dorothy I love your little meringue ghosts. They have such personality!

Reply

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