Christmas Tree Meringues

These meringue cookie trees perched on store-bought brownie bites are so impressive yet so easy.

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites, at room temp.
• ½ tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• ¾ tsp. Kelly green concentrated food coloring
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• Granulated sugar
• 4 yellow gumdrops
• 1 (3.5 oz.) tube white Wilton Sparkle Gel
• Red, white and green nonpareil sprinkles
• ⅓ cup canned vanilla frosting
• 12 mini brownies or mini brownie muffins, such as Entenmann’s Little Bites

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 250°F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Using 2½” round cutter as a guide, trace 12 circles 2″ apart on paper. Turn paper over. On medium-low speed, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. On medium-high speed, beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in superfine sugar; beat until firm, glossy peaks form, 5 minutes.
2. Beat in food coloring and flavoring or extract until mixture is very firm, 1-2 minutes. Transfer mixture to large pastry bag fitted with star tip. Starting from outer edge, pipe mixture into 2″-3″ tall spirals over circles on paper. Bake 2 hours or until firm. Turn off oven; let stand in oven with door closed 1 hour until crisp and dry. Remove; cool completely on rack.
3. On surface sprinkled with granulated sugar, roll out each gumdrop to ⅛” thickness. Using 1″ star-shaped cutter, cut out stars. Pipe sparkle gel around meringue; sprinkle with nonpareils. Transfer frosting to small plastic food storage bag; snip off one tiny bottom corner. For tree trunks, using frosting, attach brownies to meringue bottoms. Using frosting, attach gumdrop stars to meringue tops.