Light, airy, delicious and low-fat.  Color to suit your special occasion; purple, pink, green and blue for Easter, pink for Valentine’s Day, pink and blue for a baby shower. About 10 calories per cookie!

4 egg whites at room temperature

1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (or use 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, and 1/2 tsp. of another flavoring)

(optional) 1 cup mini chocolate chips

(optional) food coloring (I used the new "neon" colors).

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.  Beat egg whites on medium speed until frothy.  Add cream of tartar, beat until soft peaks form, increase speed to medium-high.  Add sugar, 1 TBS at a time, beating until sugar is dissolved (rub a bit of the meringue between your fingers to check) and stiff peaks form.  Add flavoring during this phase of whipping.

(IF USING MINI CHOCOLATE CHIPS, FOLD THEM IN AT THIS TIME)

TO COLOR THE MERINGUE:  YOU MAY USE SEVERAL DROPS OF FOOD COLORING TO TINT THE MERINGUE.  I DIVIDED THE MERINGUE INTO 3 BOWLS, AND TINTED EACH BOWLFULL A DIFFERENT COLOR. 

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls about 1" apart on two foil-lined baking sheets.  Either dust the foil with a light film of cornstarch to aid in removal, or use a non-stick cooking spray.  If you have cake-decorating tips, use the biggest one to pipe the meringue in pretty shapes onto the baking sheets.  A “star” shape is very nice.

Bake both sheets of meringues at the same time, 45 minutes.  Then turn oven off and leave meringues to cool gradually as the oven cool an hour or overnight.   When completely cool, they may be stored several days in a tight-fitting container, such as a large cookie tin or Tupperware.  Meringues absorb moisture from the air, so preventing that will keep them crisp.