Christmas baking doesn’t always have to mean rich chocolate, buttery cookies and heavy desserts. Peppermint meringue kisses offer something completely different: crisp, airy little sweets that practically dissolve on your tongue, with a cool burst of peppermint and beautiful swirls of Christmas red and green.
They look wonderfully impressive piled onto a white platter, tucked among other Christmas cookies or packaged in a clear gift box, yet the ingredient list could hardly be simpler. Egg whites and sugar create the meringue, a little cream of tartar helps stabilize it, and peppermint extract gives each bite that unmistakable candy-cane flavor.
The secret is patience. Meringues prefer a low oven and plenty of time to dry until crisp. Once you’ve mastered that, these colorful little Christmas kisses may become one of the easiest—and prettiest—treats on your holiday baking list.
🎄 Peppermint Meringue Kisses at a Glance
Prep time: 25 minutes
Bake time: 1½–2 hours
Cooling time: About 1 hour
Yield: Approximately 50–60 small meringue kisses
Oven temperature: 200°F (93°C)
🍬 Ingredients
- 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- ¾ teaspoon peppermint extract
- Red gel food coloring
- Green gel food coloring
Superfine sugar works especially well because the small crystals dissolve readily into the egg whites, helping create a smooth meringue. The original Holly Jolly Christmas recipe uses the same basic proportion of four egg whites to one cup of sugar.
If you don’t have superfine sugar, you can briefly process regular granulated sugar in a food processor until it becomes finer—but stop before it turns powdery.
🥣 Equipment You’ll Need
You’ll need a large, completely clean mixing bowl, an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with a whisk attachment, two baking sheets, parchment paper and piping bags.
For the look shown in the photograph, a large open-star piping tip is ideal. You can also use a plain round tip for some of the smoother kisses and create a mixture of shapes on the platter.
✨ How to Make Peppermint Meringue Kisses
Preheat your oven to 200°F (93°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the egg whites in a very clean, dry mixing bowl. Make sure there is no egg yolk in the whites and no oily residue in the bowl or on the whisk.
Begin beating the egg whites on medium speed until they become foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue beating until soft peaks begin to form.
Now start adding the sugar very gradually, about a tablespoon at a time. Continue beating between additions rather than pouring it all in at once.
Once all the sugar has been incorporated, increase the mixer speed and continue beating until the meringue is thick, glossy and capable of holding firm peaks. Gradually adding sugar and using a clean bowl are standard techniques for producing stable meringue.
Rub a tiny amount between two fingers. If it still feels noticeably gritty, continue beating briefly until the sugar is more completely dissolved.
Add the peppermint extract and beat just long enough to incorporate it.
❤️💚 How to Create the Red & Green Swirls in the Photo
This is the fun part—and you don’t need to color the entire bowl of meringue.
Fit two piping bags with star tips. Using a clean skewer, toothpick or small food-safe paintbrush, paint two or three thin vertical stripes of red gel coloring along the inside of one piping bag.
Paint green stripes inside the second bag.
Carefully spoon half of the white meringue into each bag. Try not to stir the coloring into the meringue.
As you pipe, the white meringue will pick up streaks of color from the sides of the bag, creating the beautiful red-and-white and green-and-white swirls visible in the photograph.
Don’t worry about making every kiss identical. Some can have bold streaks, some can be pale pink or mint green, and others can remain almost completely white. The variation actually makes the finished platter prettier.
🌟 How to Pipe the Kisses
Hold the piping bag vertically about ½ inch above the parchment paper.
For a traditional kiss, squeeze gently until you have a mound about 1 to 1½ inches across. Stop squeezing and lift the piping bag straight upward to form the little pointed peak.
For the star-shaped meringues shown in the photograph, squeeze the star-tipped piping bag without moving it much, then release the pressure and lift.
You can also create tiny swirls by piping in a very small circular motion.
Leave about an inch between the meringues. They will not spread dramatically, but a little space allows warm air to circulate around them as they dry.
🔥 Baking the Meringues
Place both trays in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 1½ to 2 hours.
The exact baking time depends on the size of your kisses and your oven. Larger meringues can take longer.
You’re not trying to brown them. Instead, the low heat slowly dries the meringues until they’re crisp and lift easily from the parchment. Low-temperature baking is commonly used for crisp meringue cookies because it allows them to dry without taking on too much color.
Once they seem dry, turn off the oven.
Leave the meringues inside for another hour with the oven door slightly ajar. This gives them additional time to cool and dry gradually.
Then transfer them to a serving platter or airtight container.
🎅 How Do You Know When Meringue Kisses Are Done?
A finished meringue should feel dry rather than sticky and should release easily from the parchment paper.
The outside should be crisp and delicate. Depending on how long you bake and dry them, the center may be completely crisp or retain the slightest bit of softer chewiness.
If the bottoms stubbornly cling to the parchment, they probably need a little more drying time.
☁️ Why Isn’t My Meringue Getting Stiff?
Meringue is simple, but egg whites can be temperamental.
One common culprit is fat. Even a little egg yolk or greasy residue in the mixing bowl can interfere with the egg whites whipping properly. A clean, dry bowl and utensils are therefore particularly important.
Another possibility is adding the sugar too quickly. Give those egg whites time to absorb the sugar gradually.
And don’t stop whipping too soon. Before piping, the meringue should look thick and glossy and make peaks that remain upright.
🌧️ Why Are My Meringues Sticky?
Humidity and meringue are not especially good friends.
Sugar readily attracts moisture, so crisp meringues can become sticky or chewy when exposed to humid air. The original recipe likewise recommends avoiding humid conditions when possible.
If you live somewhere humid, store the finished kisses in an airtight container as soon as they have completely cooled.
Don’t refrigerate them unnecessarily. A cool, dry cupboard is generally a better home for crisp meringue cookies.
🍭 Can I Add Crushed Candy Canes?
Certainly, but I would use them sparingly.
Finely crushed candy cane sprinkled over the meringues before baking can add extra peppermint flavor and Christmas sparkle, although it will change the smooth red-and-green appearance seen in the photograph.
For this particular recipe, I prefer letting the peppermint extract provide the flavor and using gel coloring to create the candy-cane effect. The resulting meringues are cleaner, lighter and especially pretty on a Christmas dessert platter.
🎨 Peppermint Meringue Variations
Once you have the basic technique down, it’s easy to change the appearance.
For classic candy-cane kisses, use only red food coloring and leave half the batch red-and-white.
For Christmas tree meringues, tint some of the meringue pale green and pipe taller spirals with a star tip. Add a few tiny sprinkles before baking.
For snowy peppermint kisses, omit the coloring altogether and make pure white meringues.
You can even pipe miniature wreath shapes for a Christmas cookie tray.
Just remember that liquid food coloring can loosen meringue more readily than concentrated gel coloring, so gel is the better choice here.
☕ What to Serve With Peppermint Meringue Kisses
These tiny sweets are particularly nice alongside hot chocolate, coffee or tea. Their light, crisp texture provides a pleasant contrast to richer Christmas desserts such as chocolate truffles, fudge and gingerbread.
For a holiday party, arrange them on a large dessert board with Christmas cookies and the Deliciously Spiced Gingerbread Truffles.
You could also set them alongside one of our 12 Festive Christmas Punch Recipes for an easy Christmas open house or afternoon gathering.
🎁 Peppermint Meringue Kisses Make Beautiful Christmas Gifts
Few homemade candies look this pretty with so little decoration.
Once the meringues are completely cool, arrange red, green and white kisses in a clear treat bag or small transparent gift box. Tie it with red ribbon and the colors immediately look festive.
They would make lovely little gifts for neighbors, teachers, coworkers or holiday hosts, or they can be added to a larger homemade Christmas cookie box.
Because meringues are fragile, don’t pack them tightly underneath heavier cookies. Either give them their own container or place them at the top.
🫙 How to Store Peppermint Meringues
Keep them somewhere dry and away from steam or moisture.
If you’re stacking several layers, parchment paper between them helps protect the delicate points and ridges.
❤️ A Little Bite of Christmas
Peppermint meringue kisses have everything you could want from an easy Christmas treat. They’re light and crisp, beautifully festive and flavored with just enough peppermint to remind you of candy canes without becoming overwhelming.
And perhaps best of all, a bowlful of ordinary white meringue becomes something quite magical with just a few streaks of red and green.
Pile these little kisses high on a Christmas platter, tuck them into gift boxes or serve them beside mugs of hot chocolate. With their snowy white centers and cheerful candy-cane swirls, they look as though they were made for December.
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