Light, airy, sweet, and delicious, these cinnamon vanilla bean meringue cookies are a perfect confection. You'll love how they look on your cookie platter!
Preheat oven to 200°F. Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper.
Combine egg whites, sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a heat-proof bowl (I used the metal bowl of my stand mixer). Set bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm (not hot), about three minutes. Add salt, cream of tartar, and cinnamon.
Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cool. This will take 5-7 minutes depending on your mixer.
Fill a pastry bag (fitted with your tip of choice–or you can just cut the end off after filling) with the meringue. Pipe meringues into circular shapes about 1 3/4- to 2-inches in diameter on 2 parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
Bake the meringues until crisp on the outside and still slightly soft on the inside, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
When separating eggs, make sure to not get any yolk in the whites. If there is any yolk whatsoever, or grease of any kind in the mixture, you won't be able to whip the whites into a meringue.
If you don't have a pastry bag and tip, use a sandwich bag with one corner snipped off. Or, just use a spoon to make small dollops. Not as pretty, but still just as good. I've made them that way plenty of times!