Freshly minted.

It's that time of year again! My annual baking frenzy has come and gone, and things are quieting down as everyone heads home for the holidays.

Last week I posted about some repurposed peppermint extract I used to spice up my hot chocolate -- its original intent was these little darlings:

My magic Martha Stewart cookie book was the source for these light-as-air peppermint meringues. Instead of making the meringue sandwiches with ganache in between, I just made the meringues themselves. I try to make a variety every year -- some sweet, some savory, some chocolatey, some fruity, some refreshing and light. This year's line-up:

• White chocolate chip gingerbread blondies
• Ranch oyster crackers
• Smoked paprika cashews
• Lemon squares
• (Back by popular demand) Grand Marnier truffles, s'more cookies, and rosemary cayenne cashews

These little peppermint meringues are so simple to make yet so festive and pretty. The trick is painting stripes of gel-paste food coloring into the pastry bag before piping them -- mine were not Martha Stewart-professional, as I lacked a large enough star tip to make the fancy edges (as well as the ambition to put together an actual pastry bag -- a gallon Ziploc bag works just great), but the red swirl was just what I was going for.

I was never a huge meringue gal, as I often find them to have a bit of a styrofoam texture, but these were surprisingly crisp and tasty (and diet-friendly!), adding some good variety to the mix.

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Peppermint Meringues

(Makes 5-7 dozen meringues)

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract

Red gel-paste food coloring

Preheat oven to 175°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Take a gallon Ziploc bag and cut off one of the corners, about 1/2" wide. Set aside.

Make meringues: Put egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and stir gently until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, 2-3 min.

Transfer bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Mix in peppermint extract.

Using a new small paintbrush, paint 2 or 3 stripes of red food coloring inside the prepared bag. Fill bag with meringue. Pipe small (3/4"-high) drops onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake cookies until crisp but not brown, about 2 hr. (depending on your oven). Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

I found that leaving the pan in the oven (with the heat off) overnight helped the meringues get really crisp -- they can get chewy if they absorb moisture from the air/aren't 100% baked through.