Vegan Meringue Ghosts Blondie Bites
You wouldn’t know how much I love Halloween based on this site. I mean, unless you count Vegan Pumpkin Blondies and Almond Joy Cookies. But I really like Halloween and I need a Halloween-themed treat to show that. That’s why today I’m sharing these Vegan Meringue Ghosts Blondie Bites. Wow. That’s a mouthful… in so many delicious ways!
If I gave you a thousand guesses, I don’t think it would be enough for you to figure out the secret ingredient that makes these ghostly white Vegan Meringue Ghosts.
First, you should know one thing. Vegan and meringue have not always been comfortable existing in the same sentence.
Meringue is typically made from egg whites. Vegans don’t eat eggs. Do you see the dilemma?
There have been many attempts to resolve this issue over the years, but a recent discovery has taken the vegan world by storm and it happens to be a favorite ingredient of mine.
The liquid from a can of beans holds a magical formula of starch, water, and protein, that simulates egg whites beautifully. That’s right, the secret ingredient in this recipe is the liquid from a can of chickpeas, something some people refer to as agua faba. I haven’t really gotten behind that term for it so I just call it bean brine. We’ll see, maybe the agua faba name will catch on with me eventually.
I understand marketing and all, but when you come up with a fancy name that you have to explain anyway, why not just stick to calling it what it is? So bean brine works just fine with me.
Having a stand mixer is really handy because this recipe calls for a lot of mixing. But you can use the old-fashioned hand mixer too. Just be prepared to be there for a bit. You can see from the photo above, the bean brine has been mixed for just a few minutes at medium speed and is just starting to become frothy.
Do you see my little gaggle of vegan meringue ghosts? I imagine they’re all singing a chorus of boo together quite nicely!
How to Make Vegan Meringue Ghosts
You can make these Vegan Meringue Ghosts in the comforts of your home, too. Let’s start with the Vegan Meringue Ghosts. Heat oven to 200°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
This recipe is great for a stand mixer because there’s a lot of mixing going on. But you can do it the old-fashioned way with a handheld mixer too.
Drain the liquid from a 15 oz can of chickpeas into a mixing bowl. I refer to this as bean brine. Mix on medium speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and corn starch and continue mixing at medium speed until that frothiness starts to turn white. Add the vanilla.
While the bean brine is mixing, place the sugar in a food processor and pulse until it becomes fine, about one minute.
While continuing to mix on medium-high speed, add one tablespoon of the processed sugar at a time, allowing time for the sugar to process into the mixture in between each. Once all the sugar is incorporated continue mixing on medium-high speed until a glossy finish is achieved that forms stiff peaks, this may take up to 7 minutes or more.
Once you’ve achieved that glossy finish with high peaks, spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a #12 round tip. Then pipe a little bit underneath each corner of the parchment paper and press down on the paper to secure it to the pan.
Now pipe 2-3 inch mounds of meringue holding it close to the pan while piping to create a fuller base and then slowly bringing the bag up, ending it with a wisp. Place the meringue mounds about 2-3 inches apart because they will spread a bit while baking.
Make about 18-20 mounds, and you should have some of the meringue left over. Place in the fridge in an airtight container.
Bake the meringue mounds in the heated oven for one hour. At that point, turn the oven off and leave the mounds in the oven until completely cool. The meringue mounds should be firm to the touch and they should lift easily off the pan.
Use black frosting (you can buy this at most stores) with a small, round tip to create two eyes and a mouth for your ghosts.
Now for the Vegan Chickpea Blondie Bites, heat your oven to 350F. Spray the bottom of an 8″ square baking pan with cooking spray.
In a food processor combine margarine, chickpeas, ground flaxseed, cornstarch, water, and vanilla. Pulse until the beans are completely smooth, up to a minute. Add the flour and give it one more pulse for a few seconds until the mixture is combined. Add the chocolate chips and use a spoon to distribute throughout the batter.
Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan. Place in the heated oven and bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
To Assemble Vegan Ghost Meringue Blondie Bites, use a round cookie cutter to cut circles from the finished (and cooled) vegan blondies. You should be able to get 18-20 circles from the finished blondies, depending on the size of the cookie cutters you’re using.
Use the reserved meringue to create a layer of icing on top of each blondie bite (I added a teaspoon or two of cocoa powder to give the icing a little color). Then place a finished meringue ghost on the top of each blondie bite.
I used black icing to create eyes and a mouth. But I think Cara’s Vegan and Gluten-Free googly eyes would be so fun too. In fact, Cara has lots of great vegan and/or gluten-free Halloween treats on her site. If I’m a fan of Halloween, Cara is a fanatic. I can’t even imagine what her front yard must look like this time of year!
I hope you like these Vegan Meringue Ghosts Blondie Bites. They’ve added a little bit of extra fun to our haunting Halloween season, I hope they do the same for you!
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Vegan Meringue Ghosts Blondie Bites
Ingredients
Vegan Meringue Ghosts
- ¾ cup chickpea bean brine liquid drained from 15 oz can of chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon color-free vanilla or almond flavoring works too
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- Black icing or mini chocolate chips to make faces
Vegan Chickpea Blondie Bites
- ½ cup dairy-free margarine
- Beans from the 15 oz can of chickpeas above
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- ¾ cup water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
Instructions
Vegan Meringue Ghosts
- Heat oven to 200F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- This recipe is great for a stand mixer because there’s a lot of mixing going on. But you can do it the old-fashioned way with a handheld mixer too.
- Drain the liquid from a 15 oz can of chickpeas into a mixing bowl. I refer to this as the bean brine. Mix on medium speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and corn starch and continue mixing on medium speed until that frothiness starts to turn white. Add the vanilla.
- While the bean brine is mixing, place the sugar in a food processor and pulse until it becomes fine, about one minute.
- While continuing to mix on medium high speed, add one tablespoon of the processed sugar at a time, allowing time for the the sugar to process into the mixture in between each. Once all the sugar is incorporated continue mixing on medium high speed until a glossy finish is achieved that forms stiff peaks, this may take up to 7 minutes or more.
- Once you’ve achieved that glossy finish with high peaks, spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a #12 round tip. Then pipe a little bit underneath each corner of the parchment paper and press down on the paper to secure it to the pan.
- Now pipe 2-3 inch mounds of meringue holding it close to the pan while piping to create a fuller base and then slowly bringing the bag up, ending it with a wisp. Place the meringue mounds about 2-3 inches apart because they will spread a bit while baking.
- Make about 18-20 mounds, and you should have some of the meringue leftover. Place in the fridge in an airtight container.
- Bake the meringue mounds in the heated oven for one hour. At that point, turn the oven off and leave the mounds in the oven until completely cool. The meringue mounds should be firm to the touch and they should lift easily off the pan.
- Use black frosting (you can buy this at most stores) with a small, round tip to create two eyes and a mouth for your ghosts.
Vegan Chickpea Blondie Bites
- Heat your oven to 350F. Spray the bottom of an 9 inch square baking pan with cooking spray.
- In a food processor combine margarine, chickpeas, ground flax seed, cornstarch, water, and vanilla. Pulse until the beans are completely smooth, up to a minute. Add the flour and give it one more pulse for a few seconds until the mixture is combined. Add the chocolate chips and use a spoon to distribute throughout the batter.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan. Place in the heated oven and bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
To Assemble Vegan Ghost Meringue Blondie Bites
- Use a round cookie cutter to cut circles from the finished (and cooled) vegan blondies. You should be able to get 18-20 circles from the finished blondies, depending on the size of the cookie cutters you’re using.
- Use the reserved meringue to create a layer of icing on top of each blondie bite (I added a teaspoon or two of cocoa powder to give the icing a little color). Then place a finished meringue ghost on the top of each blondie bite.
Recommended Equipment
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The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Enjoy!
Do you think there’s a way to add pumpkin to the brownie recipe??
Hi Sara! I think pumpkin would be so good in this recipe! I would substitute it for the chickpeas in the blondie brownies. I would start with 1 cup to see if you get the right consistency and add a little more if needed.
Could I bake these in a mini cupcakes pan?
Hi Jessica. I guess you could bake these in mini cupcake pans, but I have never made it that way so I can’t say for sure. They will bake much more quickly this way so be sure to reduce the bake time. Let me know how it goes!
Hi there Marly! ♥ Thank you so much for being part of my Top 10 Fun & easy Vegan Halloween treats, and helping me to make this the best Halloween ever 🙂
Thank you, Francesca! It was great to be a part of it with you! ❤️
This is a really cute idea – I’ll definitely try them. I think however, that rather than using canned beans, I’ll just cook up some dry ones — pretty sure they’ll create the same type of viscous “brine” but without the BPA of the can lining…
There is so much awesomeness with this!!! What a great idea with the bean liquid! I’ll have to try it!