These festive cookies are perfect for any Christmas celebration, holiday cookie exchange, or just for fun! These delightful meringues are shaped like evergreen wreaths, with a chewy inside and caramel-y toasted coconut flavor. You’re sure to have plenty of folks asking you to make them again for the next holiday season.
Ingredients:
½ cup egg whites (about 4 eggs worth)
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons matcha powder
2 ½ cups shredded coconut, unsweetened
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 325°F.
Prepare 2 or 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
To start making your cookies, you will be separating your egg whites from the yolks. First, have a sealable container and a large mixing bowl at the ready. You will put your egg yolks the sealable container, and your egg whites will go in the large mixing bowl.
Break your eggs very gently, so as to not pierce the yolk. Once broken, hold the egg over your large mixing bowl and pour it into your hand very gingerly. Allow the egg whites to fall from the spaces between your fingers and down into the bowl. Pass the egg yolk between your hands very gently until all the white has fallen into the bowl. Then gently set the remaining yolk into your sealable container. Repeat this process for all four eggs.
Seal your container of egg yolks and set them in the refrigerator. You will not need them for this recipe, but you can use them for other recipes later. They keep for about a week in a sealed container.
In a large mixing bowl, beat your egg whites with a hand mixer until frothy. This takes about 3 to 5 minutes.
Gently add in ¼ a cup of sugar into your egg whites and beat until combined. Repeat this process until you’ve added all the sugar.
Beat the egg whites until they’re very stiff and glossy. This takes a lot longer than you’d think- about 8 to 10 minutes. You can test that the eggs are ready by stopping the mixer and wiggling the bowl from side to side. If the egg whites wiggle in the center of the bowl, keep mixing. They should barely budge when they are ready, and have stiff, glossy peaks when stopped from the bowl.
Once your egg whites are ready, stir in your vanilla, salt, coconut, and matcha powder. Carefully fold the ingredients in until fully combined.
Get your cookie sheets out and plop out dollops of the cookie dough using a spoon. Leave a little space between each cookie, as they can expand a little bit.
Once you’ve spooned out all your cookies, get a chopstick or similar object. Swirl the center of each cookie until it creates a hole, making a wreath. You can also use the chopstick to tidy up the edges of the wreath and make it rounder.
Now that all your cookies have been made into wreaths, pop them in the oven for 17 minutes.
Once baked, remove them from the baking tray onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before enjoying.
