So I was making a a fun Tea Party for my little girl’s half-birthday and although I had these awesome Cucumber Sandwiches and Peeps Crack Bark, but I didn’t have anything that screamed “tea party cakes”. Then, brilliance struck…Ombre Meringue Ice Cream Cookie Towers. Light little towers of eggless meringue and ice cream in a fun, beautiful gradient of purple shades. I love it. I can’t wait to make them again, they were so yummy.
So, the biggest thing about these little Cookie Towers (which is an awesome name, don’t you think? Shouldn’t all cookies be “towers”?!) is to eat them immediately. Don’t try to make them and then take pictures for your blog. Skip taking the photos. It’s not worth it. Just grab a fork and get to stuffin’ in the face part. They, for whatever reason, just melt so fast and because of the tower-issue…it’s really a problem. Trust me. Get to the stuffin’.
Ombre Meringue Ice Cream Cookie Towers
Ombre Meringue Ice Cream Cookie Towers
Ombre Meringue Ice Cream Cookie Towers. Light little towers of eggless meringue and ice cream in a fun, beautiful gradient of purple shades. I love it.
Ingredients
- Meringues
- 1 can kidney beans, you just need the juice–about 1 cup
- 1/2 tspn vanilla extract
- 1/2 tspn cream of tartar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- Purple gel food coloring
- Ice Cream
- 4 cans coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tspn vanilla extract, clear
Instructions
- To make the cookies, preheat your oven to 200-degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper and set aside.
- Mix bean juice (no beans, just the water), cream of tartar, a couple drops of pink food coloring, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl (preferably your stand mixer’s mixing bowl, if you have one, because this takes FOREVER to mix with a hand mixer–and you’ll be there until next Christmas if you try to do it by hand-hand with no mixer at all (sorry about this if you’re Amish)).
- Beat on high in your stand mixer, adding the sugar in thirds.
- Whip for like 6-10 minutes (a really long time–even like 30 minutes, if you can). If you have to, feel free to stop the mixer to scrape the sides to make sure everything is getting fully whipped. Just keep whipping until the peaks are stiff and don’t fall over when you jiggle the bowl–like meringue.
- Fold-in 5 drops of purple food coloring.
- When it's done, spoon some cookies onto a cookie sheet--.as many cookies as you want to make towers, plus one for testing.
- Add 5 more drops of purple food coloring to the bowl and fold-in.
- Repeat until you have 4-5 layers of color cookies.
- Place in the oven and pace the floor for about 45 minutes. Then rotate the pans and resume pacing (or skip this and get working on your ice cream).
- At the hour and a half mark, take a meringue out (just one!) and allow it to cool. Test it and see if that’s the texture you would like. If you like it kinda soft (like it should be), take them all out of the oven and allow to cool. If you want the cookies crunchier, leave them in the oven for another half-hour, then check again.
- Instead of pacing for that last 45 minutes, you can make the ice cream by opening your coconut milk cans and scoop the thick cream part into a bowl, trying to get as little of the coconut water as possible. Discard coconut water or just set aside for chugging later, whatever.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla.
- Mix on high 2-3 minutes with a hand mixer until it becomes stiff and fluffy.
- Place in the freezer for approximately 1 hour (or the remaining portion of the cookie-cooking-cook-time, heh).
- Once the cookies are done to your liking, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool completely before handling. If you need to wait to do the second step, just place the cookies in an air-tight container (ziplock baggie) and they’ll keep. But if you don’t, they’ll be sticky and gross tomorrow, so I recommend just moving on with the next steps immediately.
- Laker meringue cookies from dark to light with ice cream between each layer.
- Serve immediately (they melt fast!).
So, I’m dying to know if anyone else tries this. It’s probably the yummiest dessert I’ve ever made. But I really do want to hear from you–so hit me up on Facebook with a comment or reach out to me on Instagram!