I love Aqua Faba - Meringues and Coconut Macaroons

Over the last few weeks I have discovered Aqua faba, the magic ingredient that has popped out of the woodwork allowing sufferers of egg allergies to enjoy things with egg as the key ingredient, like meringues.

At first I was sceptical, I was horrified, to use chickpea water wasn't something I had tried.

Sorry, anyway having joined a Vegan Meringue ~Facebook group  I did my research and thought, why not me too? Now we haven't eaten chickpeas much in our house, as quiet frankly I hate the taste. This taste somehow leaves the water once it is whipped up. Both these recipes use water straight from the tin. I have also made a boat load of houmous (thanks Jamie), the one chickpea thing I can cope with.

Meringues

Ingredients

¾ cup aquafaba (what comes out of one tin)
1 cup sugar,
½ tbsp vanilla essence

Method

• Preheat Oven to 100C
• Use a machine to whisk aqua faba until it has peaks (use an electric mixer, on maximum, it takes a while)
• Slowly add sugar and vanilla essence whilst the whisk is still moving
• I used a spoon to scoop it onto the tray - it can be piped though
• Cook for approx 1.5 hours. Then open door, leave meringue to cool in oven

To store these keep them in an airtight container and leave in a cupboard. I managed to keep them for a round 4 days. On top I used whipped coconut cream with icing sugar in it and strawberries.

Out of the oven

Coconut Macaroons

This is a variation (very small ones, just no salt and cup measurement of aqua faba) to this: http://theblenderist.com/coconut-macaroons-vegan-and-gluten-free/. I also didn't bother with the chocolate drizzle either, but that's because that is always a mess when I try and the wee girl is dairy intolerant. These can be made by hand rather than using a machine.

Ingredients

¼ cup of aqua faba
2 and ¼ cups of shredded coconut
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 160C (approx 325F)
• Whisk aqua faba  and the vanilla extract for 30 secs so it is frothy
• Add the coconut and sugar, make sure the coconut is all covered in the aqua faba
• At this point it doesn't really look like it should stick together. Don't panic (I did I was going to add extra aqua faba)

After mixing all together

• I used two spoons to make little "balls" of the mix which I then put on a baking tray. I did have to squish some back together once on the tray
• Put in the oven for approx 20 mins - I would suggest using the bottom level of the oven, as they didn't stick to the bottom of the tray and could come out whilst still a little white (see photo below)
• I found if they stuck to the bottom of the tray (as the ones in the middle of the oven did for me) they needed to go back in again. Mine ended up brown all over. Nice and crunchy on outside and still soft in the middle. I think if you used greaseproof paper you could take them out earlier as they wouldn't stick to that.
• At this point let them cool and eat - or drizzle some melted chocolate on top

top four were from the bottom tray in oven and could come out at 18 mins and unstuck without going brown all over. The others all had to go back in.