Lemon Meringue Cookies - Diabetic Friendly

Lemon Meringue Cookies – Diabetic Friendly

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My aunt and several of my friends are on a diabetic diet.  My aunt challenged me to come up with a diabetic friendly dessert.  Since I’m not a dietitian or doctor, I decided to search the web for my first foray into lower carb cooking.  I found this recipe for Lemon Meringue Cookies on Diabetic Living and thought it looked good.  I did make a few slight changes to the recipe, mostly to the flavor profile, but not to the carbohydrate levels, so I will use their recipe report for the amounts of calories and carbohydrates.  Disclaimer:  I am not an expert at diabetic friendly cooking although I think we could all use less sugar and carbs in our diets and I am interested in learning more about it.  Please review the ingredients carefully before including this recipe as part of a diabetic diet.

I am admittedly a meringue fan which is probably why I selected this recipe and I was not disappointed.  I would include this recipe as a dessert for everyone.  Wow.  They are small but packed with flavor and very satisfying in spite of their diminutive appearance on your plate.

When I opened the oven after baking the meringues, it was like opening a box of the Girl Scout lemon cookies. The aroma was wonderful.

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Lemon Meringue Cookies

  • Makes: 17 servings
  • Serving Size: 2 sandwich cookies
  • Carb Grams Per Serving: 8

Ingredients

  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel (I used the peel from one lemon which was about 1/2 teaspoon.  I didn’t want to use all my lemons!  It was still pretty tasty with less)
  • 1 recipe Yellow Cream Filling (below)

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl allow egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
  2. Add lemon extract, cream of tartar, and salt to egg whites. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until soft peaks form (tips curl). In a small bowl combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually add the sugar mixture to the egg white mixture, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beating on high speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Fold in lemon peel.
  3. Transfer egg white mixture to a disposable piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe 1- 1/2-inch circles that are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick onto the prepared cookie sheets, leaving 1 inch between circles.
  4. Place cookie sheets on separate oven racks; bake for 10 minutes. Turn off oven; let cookies dry in oven with door closed for 1 hour. Carefully lift cookies off parchment paper. Transfer to wire racks; let stand just until cookies are cool. (The cookies can quickly become tacky, especially if the weather is humid. To prevent this, store unfilled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
  5. Just before serving, place Yellow Cream Filling in a piping bag fitted with a large round tip or in a resealable plastic bag with a corner snipped off. Pipe 1 teaspoon filling onto the flat side of half the cooled cookies. Top with remaining cookies, flat sides down, to make sandwich cookies. Makes about 34 sandwich cookies (2 sandwich cookies each).

Tip

  • Test Kitchen Tip: We do not recommend using sugar substitutes for this recipe.

Yellow Cream Filling

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup softened light tub-style cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup light sour cream
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 4 drops yellow food coloring

(As I mentioned earlier, I changed the flavor a bit from the original recipe.  I added less lemon peel and I added ground ginger to some of the filling.  If you like ginger, the addition was a good one.  The ginger and lemon combination was delicious.)

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl beat softened light tub-style cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in light sour cream and powdered sugar until smooth. Add yellow food coloring or more until desired shade is reached.

Nutrition Facts Per Serving:

Servings Per Recipe: 17
PER SERVING: 48 cal., 1 g total fat (1 g sat. fat), 5 mg chol., 61 mg sodium, 8 g carb. (7 g sugars), 1 g pro.

 

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One Response to Lemon Meringue Cookies – Diabetic Friendly

  1. Sally December 29, 2013 at 1:41 pm #

    Those cookies are delicious!

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