Spooky yummy treats... with help from my old friend

My old friend, the Kitchen Aid mixer, was joyously unpacked last night. What better way to make her feel needed and appreciated, I thought, than to put her right to work on meringue?  These spooky little ghost meringues are easy and so cute. Meringue can be tricky sometimes-- your bowl and beaters need to be completely clean and totally dry, the weather can't be too humid, the egg whites should be room temperature, and you have to beat them long enough... but I usually just do what I can and hope for the best! In my case, some of my ghosts ended up a little, well, "tired". I think that the meringue in the bottom of the bowl wasn't quite stiff enough.The last ghosts I made ended up leaning backward a little, which my kids happened to think was HILARIOUS. Regardless, the ghosts of all shapes, and levels of quality were appreciated and gobbled up. My son even announced that his belly is now haunted.

Any little sprinkles will do for the eyes and mouth. And yes, I did use tweezers to place them on the faces of these darling little ghosts.

Halloween Ghost Meringues
3 egg whites, room temperature
pinch of salt
1/8 t. cream of tartar
1/4 t. vanilla
3/4 c. powdered sugar
tiny candies or sprinkles for eyes and mouth

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Place egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla in bowl of electric mixer. Whisk at medium high speed until  the whites are frothy and have increased slightly in volume. Leaving mixer on, slowly sprinkle in sugar. The whisking will take about 20 minutes. When you can lift the whisk and leave a structured peak, the meringue is done.

Carefully fill a pastry bag (or Ziplock bag with a small corner cut off) with meringue. Slowly pipe small mounds/ghost-looking blobs(!) onto prepared baking sheet. Press small candies or sprinkles in for the face. Place in middle of oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn off oven and keep ghosts  in oven for another hour and a half.

When ghosts are at room temperature, they should be crisp  and are ready to be gobbled up.Store them in an airtight container.