Saffron Meringue Chicks

Saffron Peeps
Marshmallow Peeps have an amazing cult following, and it's no wonder why: they are cute, abstract, colorful, ubiquitous, and sugary. While it sometimes seems that the entire human race is firmly in favor of performing cruel experiments on them, there is a little less consensus on whether or not one should actually eat them. Both sides of the aisle have their merits, of course, and more often than not the debate is merely over whether fresh or stale peeps are tastier. All debating aside, here's a gourmet option for fans of Peeps that prefer to stuff their gizzards with something other than mass-produced marshmallows: Saffron Meringue Chicks!

Much has been written on peeps. An excellent place to start is this article from 2000 on peeps etiquette, which states that "there are, believe it or not, 20 Web sites devoted to Peeps, and many feature crafty projects." While we're not quite sure how to adjust that figure of 20 sites for internet inflation, a recent Google search for "marshmallow peeps" turns up more than 160,000 hits. Obviously we haven't been to all of them, but here are some highlights from the pages that we have seen:

Most pertinent to our project (via not martha) is this article about DIY peeping, including the official but 2-D Peep kit, how to make your own in 3D, and marshmallow recipes from Brownie Points.

While fresh marshmallows are fantastic, meringue gives you the option of omitting the gelatin (a plus for semi-vegetarians such as ourselves) and not worrying about getting to the "soft-ball stage" in candy making. Meringues are pretty straightforward: whip stuff together and then bake at a low temperature for a long time. Ours have the added bonus of a natural coloring agent (saffron) which produces the perfect peep yellow and imparts a very distinctive flavor.

Proto-peeps Start out with a basic meringue recipe like this one (we used the meringue cookie recipe from Baking Illustrated) and mix 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crumbled saffron strands into the egg whites prior to whipping them.
Peep piping bag Spoon the meringue cream into a pastry bag or gallon ziplock bag fitted with an icing tip.
Piped peep Put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet so that your meringues won't stick.

Pipe the chicks starting with the body, back up for the neck, then release pressure and pull away for the beak.

mutant peep Mutant peeps can be sculpted with a toothpick. (This one looks more like an (obese) adult chicken than a chick.)
Baked peep Optionally, sprinkle with a thin even layer of granulated sugar before baking.

The sugar gives your baked meringue the illusion of being an encrusted marshmallow-- the yellow meringue encrusted with clear sugar looks just like the white marshmallow encrusted with yellow sugar. Don't overdo it on the sugar sprinkles-- it can weight down the meringue during baking, and excessive sweetness does not compliment the saffron.

Bake according to your recipe, usually one to two hours in a barely warm oven. Once they are out and cool, it's time to add the eyes.

Adding eyes Melt a few chocolate chips and dab eyes on. The tool shown here is a Japanese-style toothpick. The flat end is just the right size for the job. If your sugar layer is particularly heavy, you'll need a larger dab of chocolate. For smoother peeps, you need hardly any at all.
Finished peep Admire your finished saffron meringue chick.


Next thing you know, armies of little yellow pseudo-peeps will be coming to rule the world. Save room for dessert.
Army of Peeps




MetaBlog links for this story: [ del.icio.us | technorati ]

Technorati tags: , , , , , , , , ,

10 comments

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 03:00 AM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Hmm. How do you think meringue would work in a 3D printer? Think you could cook/dry it in the printer environment without cooking the unprinted meringue as well?
Authored by: Lenore on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 08:50 AM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Meringue cream is thick and gooey, and working precisely with it is a challenge. Once you are past that technical difficulty, it does need to be cooked, so you would either need an oven integrated in the design of your printer or a way to move the model from the printer to the oven.
Authored by: Windell on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 09:27 AM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
A heater integrated into the printing head would be ideal-- you could make arbitrarily complicated tasty sculptures that way. The down side is that meringues are cooked at low heat over a very long period of time to dry out, so it's hard to imagine how long it would take to dry every 3D pixel (voxel) one at a time.

On the other hand, if the wall thickness were kept low everywhere, you could move the whole thing to the oven, as suggested. We might have to try it.

---
Windell H. Oskay
drwho(at)evilmadscientist.com
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 03:55 AM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Thank you so much for showing us a way to enjoy peeps without actually having to EAT them!!!! (foul things)
Noni The Oz GSOLFOT (peeps are baaaaad ok!)
Authored by: Allen Holman on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 08:38 AM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
I got so excited when you started talking about no gelatin... but was crushed by the inclusion of eggs.

None the less, it seems like a fun project thank you for sharing, I'm sure lots of people will have fun with this one - Thank you!
Authored by: Windell on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 08:51 AM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Since Meringues are essentially whipped and cooked egg whites, it's hard to imagine any successful substitution!

On the other hand, if vegan cooking is your goal, you might want to go right back to the marshmallow-based recipe-- substituting vegan gelatin.

---
Windell H. Oskay
drwho(at)evilmadscientist.com
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/

Authored by: Allen Holman on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 05:52 PM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Thats for the tip, Pangea isnt too far from me actually.

I might just swing by and try my hand at some vegan chickies!
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 04 2007 @ 04:54 PM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Here's another (mis)use for Peeps:

http://bikerpeeps.com/

Being a motorcyclist, it makes me laugh anyway.

charles
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 11 2007 @ 06:16 PM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Do you need to add vanilla or is the saffron enough?The recipe said to add it at a certain point, if using.
Authored by: Windell on Wednesday, April 11 2007 @ 06:27 PM PDT Saffron Meringue Chicks
Saffron on its own is a very strong flavor, and you do need not *need* to add any other flavors, but you certainly can add vanilla if you wish-- it won't hurt.

---
Windell H. Oskay
drwho(at)evilmadscientist.com
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
Welcome to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. New projects are posted on most Wednesdays.


Bookmark EMSL

EMSL RSS Feed
Twitter: @EMSL
del.icio.us
feedburner
Feed on Google Reader
YouTube Channel

Subscribe to get new articles by E-mail:

E-mail address:


Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

My Account





Sign up as a New User
Lost your password?

Who's Online

Guest Users: 13

DIY Hardware for Electronic Art


Interactive LED Panel kits


Meggy Jr RGB
LED matrix game
development kit.


Business-card sized
AVR target boards


Peggy 2
LED Pegboard kits

Forumposts

Order: New Views Posts
Latest 10 Forum Posts
 
Re: LEDs in series
 By:  Windell
 Tuesday, March 16 2010 @ 09:38 AM PDT
LEDs in series
 By:  IDK
 Tuesday, March 16 2010 @ 07:20 AM PDT
Re: Killer Board
 By:  Windell
 Sunday, March 14 2010 @ 05:17 PM PDT
Killer Board
 By:  Flashofwhite
 Sunday, March 14 2010 @ 11:15 AM PDT
Re: Coffee table Vs. Dining ta..
 By:  Windell
 Saturday, March 13 2010 @ 12:56 AM PST
Re: Coffee table Vs. Dining ta..
 By:  Chris
 Friday, March 12 2010 @ 11:25 AM PST
Re: Coffee table Vs. Dining ta..
 By:  Windell
 Friday, March 12 2010 @ 10:15 AM PST
Coffee table Vs. Dining table ..
 By:  Chris
 Friday, March 12 2010 @ 06:13 AM PST
Re: 3D Routed Interactive Wall
 By:  wgarris
 Tuesday, March 09 2010 @ 11:31 AM PST
Re: 3D Routed Interactive Wall
 By:  Lenore
 Tuesday, March 09 2010 @ 10:39 AM PST