These peppermint meringue cookies are everything Christmas should be—melt-in-your-mouth meringue, festive red and white swirls, chocolate flavor and bright peppermint crunch! Make a double batch to celebrate as these go fast.
Prepare recipe. Preheat oven to 250°F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whip Meringue Powder and water with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer running, gradually add sugar in small amounts at a time. Whip until stiff peaks form, typically 4-5 minutes.
Add vanilla and peppermint flavoring then continue whipping until well combined, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl, as necessary.
Transfer about ½ cup of meringue into a separate bowl and tint with red red icing color.
Prepare decorating bags. Fill a decorating bag with red meringue and cut a small hole in.
Fill a decorating bag with white meringue and cut a small hole in the tip.
Prepare another decorating bag with tip 32 (or tip 2B), stripe the bag with three lines of red meringue, then carefully fill the bag with the white meringue.
Hint: To stripe a decorating bag: Fold down the top of your decorating bag, then dip a decorating brush in the icing color and paint vertical stripes inside the decorating bag. For larger striped lines use an angled spatula.
Pipe and bake cookies. On a cookie pan lined with parchment, pipe tip 32 spirals of meringue about 3 in. diameter. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Turn off oven and allow the meringues to sit in the oven undisturbed for an hour or overnight.
Decorate cookies. Once the meringue cookies are dry, melt the Candy Melts candy in a bowl and dip the bottoms of the meringues, then coat the bottoms with the peppermint crunch sprinkles while the candy is still wet. Let set.