A little sweet, a little crispy, and a little chewy—these Orange-Vanilla Meringue Swirls are the perfect treat. It’s amazing what a few great ingredients can become when combined with simple techniques. They taste almost like one of those delightful orange creamsicles.

Featured in a past issue of Martha Stewart Living, I’ve been looking forward to making these meringues for weeks. But first, I needed to find a half-inch plain pastry tip. After searching through many stores, I finally had to settle for a half-inch star tip. Honestly, I kind of prefer the look of the meringues with the decorative ridges.

The recipe calls for the seeds from half a vanilla bean. I tossed the remaining half, along with the seeded bean, into the jar where I’m making homemade vanilla extract. It’s still about a month away from being ready, but I’ll share more about that in a future post.

One final detail I love is the pattern left on the parchment paper after removing the baked meringues. I’m actually thinking about framing the design! You can see a portion of the meringue imprint in the lower left image of the collage below.

Orange-Vanilla Meringue Swirls – Martha Stewart Living, May 2012

• 3 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Large pinch of salt
• Large pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
• Gel-paste food color, orange

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place egg whites in a heatproof mixing bowl. Add vanilla seeds and sugar, and whisk by hand to combine. Set bowl over a pot of simmering water, and whisk constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes. Add salt and cream of tartar.

Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 7 minutes. Beat in orange zest.

Using a small paintbrush, paint 3 vertical stripes of food coloring inside the pastry bag fitted with a half-inch tip. Fill bag with meringue, and pipe 1 3/4-inch circular shapes 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside, about 75 minutes. (I baked mine an additional 15 minutes.) Let cool completely on a wire rack.