Dreamy and Delicious – Suspiros Cookies

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Discover how to make delicious suspiros cookies with just three ingredients. Perfect for satisfying your sweet cravings- Costa Rican style!

bowl of small white meringue cookies

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About This Suspiros Recipe

Costa Rican suspiros are little delicate meringue cookies popular year-round but especially at Costa Rican Christmas and during Holy Week. With just three ingredients, they are easy to make with what you have on hand, and they are super delicious.

Suspiro means “sigh” in Spanish, and I think it’s the perfect word for these little cookies. Really, they are as much a candy as a cookie, since they are super sweet like candy, but baked like cookies.

These cookies are also known as espumilla in Costa Rica- which translates to “little foam.” I think the name comes from the foamy texture of the egg whites when you beat them up to stiff peaks.

The cookies then condense when baking to form a hard shell on the outside and a foamy interior that is delicious. And addicting. You really can’t eat just one. (Well maybe you can, but I can’t.) The lower and longer you cook the merengues, the foamier they are on the inside.

Suspiros are found at almost every Costa Rican bakery year-round- not many people even make them at home anymore. But I can’t find them here in the States. I can find meringue cookies, but they don’t have that distinctly Costa Rican flavor that comes from the lime juice.

Meringue is actually a popular cookie all over the world- I saw marbled pink and brown meringues the size of my head in Finland- and teeny tiny neon-colored ones in Mexico City. Even my grandma used to make them at Christmas- and she’s French!

Related article: Costa Rican Tres Leches Recipe

Costa Rican Suspiros Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup sugar (16 tablespoons)
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice

Kitchen Tools:

Instructions:

Using your electric mixer, beat the 3 egg whites on medium speed in the mixing bowl until soft peaks form.

Slowly add the 1 cup sugar, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, until thoroughly mixed.

Add the 1 teaspoon lime juice and beat thoroughly. (You really can’t overmix this, but you can undermix, making the meringues deflate in the oven).

Fill your piping bag with the meringue and pipe out little flower or rosette shapes onto your baking sheet, about two inches apart.

Many Costa Rican recipes call for the meringue just to be spooned out into drops on the baking sheet, which is also more than fine. It’s just not very pretty.

Bake the meringues for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn off the oven, then open the oven to let out excess heat.

Allow the suspiros to cool completely in the oven for another 2-3 hours before carefully removing the meringue from the baking sheet and serving.

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Substitutions

The recipes in the Costa Rican recipe books call for granulated sugar, but many meringue recipes use powdered sugar (or caster sugar as some call it) because it is a more traditional meringue ingredient.

You can substitute lemon juice for lime juice.

Variations

You can add all kinds of different colors to the meringue- just play with fun food colorings. Costa Rican bakers say that the lime is to make the suspiros whiter in color, so it can be omitted when using food coloring. I disagree, however, I think the lime flavor is super distinct to Costa Rican suspiros so I always leave it in.

The other variation is to make flavored espumillas. You can add essences like almond extract or vanilla extract, or play with fun flavors like raspberry, lemon, anise, cherry, strawberry, and more.

Serving Suggestions

I wouldn’t say that there is an exact serving suggestion for these, but they would generally be served at coffee hour or as dessert– most likely after lunch rather than in the evening.

Sometimes the cookies are sold on the street or at festivals, and ticos will buy a container of cookies and share them with the people they are with.

FAQ

Can I make the suspiros ahead of time?

Unfortunately, you cannot make the suspiros mix ahead of time. You must make the batter and bake them right away or the entire recipe will go flat.

What is the best way to store the suspiros cookies?

Store them at room temperature in an air-tight container. In Costa Rica, these are usually sold in clear, plastic clam shell containers.

Can I double this suspiros recipe?

You can. It does not triple well, however.

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Printable Recipe

Yield: 50 cookies

Costa Rican Suspiros Cookies

Bowl of small white meringue cookies.

Costa Rican suspiros are meringue cookies made from just three ingredients- egg whites, granulated sugar and just a touch of lime juice. The perfect cross between a cookie recipe and a candy recipe- and so easy!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Additional Time 2 hours
Total Time 3 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup sugar (16 tablespoons)
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper, or lightly greased
  • electric mixer
  • piping bag (like for frosting)
  • large star tip for piping bag

Instructions

    1. Using your electric mixer, beat the 3 egg whites on medium speed in the mixing bowl until soft peaks form.
    2. Slowly add the 1 cup sugar, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, until thoroughly mixed. Add the teaspoon of lime juice and beat thoroughly.
    3. (You really can't overmix this, but you can undermix, making the meringues deflate in the oven).
    4. Fill your piping bag with the meringue and pipe out little flower or rosette shapes onto your baking sheet, about two inches apart. Many Costa Rican recipes call for the meringue just to be spooned out into drops on the baking sheet, which is also more than fine.
    5. Bake the meringues for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
    6. Turn off the oven, then open the oven to let out excess heat.
    7. Allow the suspiros to cool completely in the oven for another 2-3 hours before carefully removing the meringue from the baking sheet and serving.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

50

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 17Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 3mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 0gSugar: 4gProtein: 0g

Please double-check this information with your favorite nutrition calculator.

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Christa Jimenez

Welcome! I’m Christa, a Spanish teacher married to a handsome Costa Rican and mother of two bilingual daughters. We’ve spent over 25 years living in and traveling to Costa Rica with our daughters, and this website is my love letter to all things Costa Rica- and to bilingual parenting too. You can read my full story here. Thanks for stopping by!

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6 Comments

  1. wow I love this little treat with hardly any ingredients and they are so easy to make yours are perfect! I just used a teaspoon worked great!

  2. Decided to be brave tonight! I didn’t realize the intended yield for this recipe was 50 until after I had them in the oven for 15 minutes… so we’ll see how this goes!! Haha
    I currently have 27 suspiros on 3 cookie sheets at 175°F. I basically used a Tablespoon to scoop them onto the parchment paper. They are getting larger, which I am taking as a good sign.
    Also, I used cane sugar because I ate so much of it on my recent trip to Costa Rica, and I love how it tastes!
    Just hoping for the best over here lol

  3. Alright, approaching the end of the bake now. For the last 30 minutes of the timer, I bumped the temperature up to 180°F since my 27 suspiros are extra large and I want them to be done all the way on the inside too.
    Since there are no limes in my house right now, I used lemon juice for the flavor. I know it won’t be the same, but I’m working with what I’ve got, ya know. Kinda of a spontaneous night in the kitchen lol.

    Total bake time was 2 hours and 10 minutes (175°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then 180°F for 45 minutes).
    After this, I turned off the oven and opened it to release excess heat. My dog waited with me đŸ™‚ I was able to leave the oven ajar, so total cooling time was approximately an hour. In a couple of my suspiros, the inside had begun to bubble out, but the color on all of them is beautiful all the way around!

    Time for the taste test (I recruited my family for this as well): quite delicious! Very unique, none of us have ever had a meringue before. Due to their large size, the centers were slightly hollow but soft and marshmallowy. The outside had an almost crunchy shell that reminded me of a well toasted marshmallow. Mom said the lemon wasn’t very distinct, but personally I found it just right.

    For a spontaneous evening activity, I think these suspiros turned out pretty well!

    Pura vida, y buenas noches! <3

  4. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I made them for a Girl Scout event called World Thinking Day. Each troop picked a country – we chose Costa Rica – and made a display with all kids of fun facts and info about the country. 80+ elementary girls got to try these, and they were a big hit! Super simple to make, too!