23 Light, Airy Meringue Recipes (2024)

Meringue is an indispensable component in an array of desserts, lending its airy lightness to everything from pavlovas to baked Alaska to classic French macarons. Ethereal and cloud-like, it can be swirled and brûléed to produce crispy caramel peaks atop a pie. You can also fold in nuts or chocolate and bake it slow and low to yield delicately crisp, melt-in-your-mouth pillows to be enjoyed on their own or layered with cream. Here are our most magnificent meringue desserts.

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Baked Alaska

Make your own meringue-topped and torched layered ice cream cake with this simple step-by-step method that takes advantage of creamy (and customizable) store-bought ice creams and sorbets; a simple, buttery pound cake; and just enough time in the freezer between layers to ensure success.

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Lemon Meringue Pie with Marcona Shortbread Crust

Ann Taylor Pittman's recipe is assertively — but not aggressively — lemony, and is balanced by the fluffy meringue topping, which has the perfect sweetness and density to complement the tarter-than-usual filling.

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Lemon-Olive Oil Cream Meringue Tart

With a shortbread-like tart crust, a rich lemon-olive oil cream filling, and an Italian meringue topping, this tart by acclaimed pastry chef Claudia Fleming feels like a luxurious take on lemon meringue pie.

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Pavlova Wreath

This holiday centerpiece-worthy pavlova wreath is dolloped with vanilla whipped cream, sprinkled with fresh raspberries and pistachios, and adorned with an enchanting toasted white chocolate bark.

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Spiced Pavlovas with Oranges and Mulled Wine Caramel

In this recipe, the aromas of a Bavarian Christmas market — glühwein, toasted almonds, spiced cookies — are infused into the components of a classic pavlova: Sweet cinnamon meringue is topped with tangy quark and crowned with bright citrus and mulled wine caramel.

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Double-Decker Meringue Cake with Summer Berries

The meringue topping expands as this stunning cake bakes, so be careful not to spread it all the way to the edges of the cake batter to make removing the cake from the pan easier. Top with whatever berries are in season at your market, or use your favorite sliced stone fruit.

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Mom's Citrus Meringue Pie

In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe one of our 40 best. It starts with a crust made with fresh orange juice, that's filled with tangy lemon-lime curd, then gets dressed up with swirls of sweet meringue that caramelize in the oven.

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Maple-Meringue Doughnuts

The secret to doughnuts at home is in the dough: Retarding the shaped doughnuts allows a more complex, yeasty flavor to develop. Pastry chef Joanne Chang's recipe is filled with marshmallowy meringue; use an intense, robust, high-quality maple syrup to ensure lots of maple flavor.

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White Chocolate Meringue Piecrust

Marshmallowy Italian meringue is baked until firm, dry, and crisp and then brushed with melted white chocolate, adding delicate sweetness while also creating a barrier that helps prevent this crust from getting soggy once the filling is added.

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Cornhusk Meringues with Corn Mousse

This beloved dessert from chef Enrique Olvera features shatteringly crisp charred cornhusk meringues. They're served with a luscious cream mousse made from fresh corn-infused cream and mascarpone cheese; the result is ethereal and unexpected.

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Raspberry Macarons

These are among the simplest classic French macarons, made with only sugar, almond flour, egg whites, red food coloring — and a filling of raspberry jam. The jam is the star of the show, so be sure to purchase the finest seedless raspberry jam you can find.

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Frozen Chocolate Chip Meringata

Meringata — Italian for "meringue cake" — is an elegant yet homey frozen dessert of whipped cream sandwiched between meringue rounds. Italian fine food importer and cookbook author Rolando Beramendi serves it with a warm chocolate-espresso sauce.

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Hazelnut and Chocolate Meringue Cake

This extraordinary dessert, made with crisp chocolate-hazelnut meringue and whipped cream, is simple to make. But pastry chef Daniel Jasso has nicknamed it "the beast" because slicing it can be tricky — the meringue tends to crumble. The solution: Freeze the cake, cut it with a serrated knife, and let it return to room temperature before serving.

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Summer Berries with Cumin Meringues and Crème Fraîche

A touch of cumin gives these crisp meringues a welcome warmth that pairs beautifully with a trio of sweet and juicy summer berries and a dollop of tangy crème fraîche. Aromatic and floral ground cardamom or fresh and herbal ground coriander may be substituted for the cumin, or the spice can be omitted altogether.

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Not Your Usual Lemon Meringue Pie

In her variation of lemon meringue pie, pastry chef and cookbook author Gale Gand forgoes a traditional crust for quick-baked sheets of sugared phyllo dough, which she layers with housemade lemon curd and a brown sugar meringue. For an easier version, use good quality store-bought phyllo dough and lemon curd.

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Chilled Grapefruit-Caramel Meringue Pie

Most pastry chefs love lemon and orange, but for this recipe Deborah Snyder champions grapefruit. In one cold, creamy dessert, she layers pink grapefruit curd in a crunchy graham cracker crust with caramel cream, caramel sauce, and a delicate topping of fluffy meringue.

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Brutti ma Buoni (Spiced Pecan Meringues)

"Don't judge the taste of these cookies by the crags and cracks," says Los Angeles-based chef Merrin Mae Gray. (The Italian name means "ugly but good.") The pecans and potent grappa are unexpectedly elegant, and the crisp outsides and chewy centers make these meringues seriously irresistible.

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S'mores Bars with Marshmallow Meringue

These amazingly delicious bars from cookbook authors and baking duo Cheryl and Griffith Day feature a salty, crunchy graham cracker crust topped with a rich chocolate filling and fluffy marshmallow meringue.

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Strawberry Baked Alaska

Chef Andrea Reusing makes every part of these lovely individual baked Alaskas from scratch — even the graham crackers for the base. Our recipe calls for store-bought grahams, and if making homemade ice cream isn't your thing, you can sub in a good prepared brand. Use a pastry torch to brown the meringue topping and serve with macerated strawberries.

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Hot Cocoa Cupcakes with Meringue Frosting

A mother of two and former bakery owner Silvano Nardone loves nostalgic desserts, like these rich chocolate cupcakes mounted with a fluffy marshmallow-esque meringue frosting.

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Sweet Potato Meringue Pie

This dessert from 2000 F&W Best New Chef Andrew Carmellini looks like a pumpkin pie, but the filling is actually made with sweet potato. It sits on a spiced graham cracker-pecan crust and is topped with billowy meringue instead of the typical whipped cream.

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Swirled Meringue Roulade with Praline Whipped Cream

Cookbook author Malika Ameen rolls her cocoa-laced meringue around pillowy whipped cream and crunchy, nutty praline for an utterly delectable, totally elegant roulade. A garnish of blackberries or pomegranate seeds makes this dessert even more eye-catching.

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Baked Alaska Birthday Cake

This ultimate birthday cake features three flavors of ice cream, moist chocolate cake, nutty ganache, and fluffy meringue.

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