Pamilya at Bata
Melt-in-the-mouth baby snacks: eight little melts and meringue drops
Eight light, melt-in-the-mouth snacks for babies — egg-yolk melts, fruit melts and crisp meringue drops — the kind that dissolve easily and can be fed a few at a time when a little one is peckish.
When it comes to baby snacks, the most-searched of all are melts, melt-in-the-mouth treats and meringue puffs. The appeal of this kind of snack is that it's light and dissolves easily, and it's simple to offer a few at a time — which suits parents who want to let a baby try different flavours without reaching for anything heavy.
From Egg Yolk Melts to fruit versions like Mango Egg-White Melts, through to crisp meringue drops, this set covers the flavours Hong Kong parents most often look for. Rainbow Melts and Milky Purple Sweet Potato Puffs add a bit of colour and variety once the plainer ones are a hit.
1. Egg Yolk Melts
Melts suit the smallest babies, and they hold up just as well as a snack for older children — and for a child who turns away from eggs, this is one way to slip some in. Egg-yolk melts take only two things, egg and milk powder, and the method is plain enough that this is the one to start with.
2. Dragon Fruit Melt Sticks
Melts dissolve the moment they hit the tongue and carry a rich milky scent, which is why so many parents have gone looking for the recipe. This one takes its flavour and colour from red-fleshed dragon fruit, and is piped into sticks rather than round beads so a small baby can grip one. For the milk powder, use whatever formula the baby already drinks.
3. Colourful Meringue Drops
Well-beaten meringue is stable and fine-grained, with a silky sheen across the surface. The little peak on top is nothing to worry about around a child: the drop is delicate enough that the tip snaps at a touch, and saliva dissolves it on contact. If a small baby is eating them, the food colouring is worth leaving out — plain is good enough.
4. Crunchy Meringue Drops
Sweets belong to childhood; it is the shop-bought kind, with whatever has gone into it, that gives a parent pause. Made at home, the ingredient list is yours. These are egg white and sugar and nothing else, baked low and slow for a few hours — once they lift cleanly off the paper they are done, and they cool to a proper crunch.
5. Mango Egg-White Melts
Piped out one by one, these melts hold their ridges clean and sharp — half the pleasure is simply looking at them. Pair the mango purée with a milk powder whose fat content is under 1.5, and seal the melts away the moment they leave the oven; left sitting out, they lose their crispness.
6. Rainbow Melts
Every colour here comes out of a juicer — dragon fruit, cucumber and raspberry — with no food colouring at all. Any fruit or vegetable will do in their place, though leafy greens want a quick boil before they go in. Piped small, the melts are easy for a baby to pick up, and the bright colours are the whole draw.
7. Fried-Egg Melts
These melts come out looking like miniature fried eggs, and the shape is built over two bakes: the white batter goes in until it sets, then the yolk paste is piped into the middle and the tray goes back. Milky and light, they are ready once a gentle pinch crumbles one.
8. Milky Purple Sweet Potato Puffs
Egg whites left over from a batch of melts become these puffs once a little purple sweet potato mash goes in. Only 7 grams of sugar — barely sweet, and still worth eating — which is why it suits adults and children alike. Crisp on the bite, and it dissolves for a baby who simply holds one in the mouth.
Each recipe comes in Chinese, English, Filipino and Indonesian, so a batch of melts turns out the same whoever makes them. Save a couple into your weekly plan and there's always a light little snack on hand for a peckish moment.
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Hanapin ang putahe, planuhin ang linggo, at ibahagi ito sa lahat sa inyong hapag.
