How to Make Meringue Ghosts for Halloween

It's made just like for the mini pavlovas: whisk the whites to stiff peaks and rain in the sugar, beating until the meringue is glossy, firm and grit-free when you rub a little between your fingers.

For ghosts it needs to be even firmer: if the peak bends when you lift the whisk, keep beating. A soft meringue spreads on the tray and the ghost comes out short and squat.

The bowl and whisk must be spotlessly clean and dry: a drop of fat or yolk is enough to stop the whites from rising.

The easiest tool is a piping bag with a plain round tip, 1 to 1.5 cm (about ½ inch). If you don't have one, a sturdy zip-top bag with one corner snipped to the same width works. To keep the parchment paper from lifting while you work, stick it to the tray with a dot of meringue in each corner.

Hold the bag straight up, 1 cm above the tray. Squeeze without moving until you have a base 3 to 4 cm wide; then keep squeezing as you slowly lift, easing off the pressure so the body narrows. At the top, stop squeezing and pull the bag away sharply: the meringue stretches and leaves the pointed tail that makes them ghosts.

For arms, tilt the bag and pipe a short point on each side, halfway up. And if the tip comes out crooked, all the better: no two ghosts look alike, and the leaning ones seem to be floating.

They barely rise in the oven, so 2 cm between them is enough.

Before baking, with mini chocolate chips pressed point-first into the raw meringue. At the low drying temperature they don't melt or lose their shape. It's the quickest way, but they have to go on as soon as each ghost is piped, before the meringue forms a skin.

After baking, once the ghosts are completely cool: a little melted chocolate and a toothpick, or an edible marker. It's neater and lets you play with the expressions. Never on warm meringue, or the chocolate runs.

An "O"-shaped mouth — a vertical oval — is what turns them into startled ghosts rather than little snowmen.

Set the oven to its lowest setting, 90 to 100 °C (195 to 210 °F), and leave the ghosts in much longer than the pavlova's 45 minutes: 1 to 1½ hours, depending on size. A pavlova is meant to stay soft in the middle; a ghost has to be dry right to the center, so it keeps for days and holds up on top of a cake.

They're done when they lift off the paper on their own and sound hollow when tapped. Then turn the oven off and let them cool inside, door ajar, for another hour: a sudden change in temperature cracks them.

To keep them white, temperature matters more than time: if they start to color, the oven is too hot. If yours won't go below 120 °C (250 °F), prop the door open with a wooden spoon for the whole drying time.

They weep beads of syrup: the sugar didn't fully dissolve or the oven was too hot. Next time, keep beating a little longer after adding the sugar.

They turned sticky or soft: they weren't dried long enough or picked up moisture; you'll notice it on a rainy day. Another 15 to 20 minutes on the lowest setting brings them back.

They spread out: the meringue was too soft or the sugar went in too fast.

In an airtight jar or tin in a dry place they keep for one to two weeks, so you can make them well ahead. Not in the fridge: there they pick up moisture and go soft.

On cream they soften within a couple of hours, so add them last, right before serving. They look great on top of the pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream, on cupcakes or brownies, or floating in a mug of hot chocolate.