Chocolate "Chip" Meringues

Hey guys. Sorry I didn't post anything last week, I got pretty busy.

Anyway, in my search for ideas of things to make on this blog, I thought about a recipe I made a few years ago for Chocolate Meringues. Meringues are those awesome cookies that are made from egg whites beaten stiff with sugar added. While beating egg whites is tough work (not really) the reward is great. The cookies are sweet and have an awesome texture: they literally melt in your mouth.

To make them, we start with a rather small cast of ingredients:

 

Not pictured, but also used is vanilla. If you're smarter than I am, you will also choose superfine sugar instead of confectioners sugar, but that's a matter of taste, or something.

First thing, we need to separate our eggs! I set up two bowls (and my handy dandy egg separator). CAREFULLY crack the egg in to the separator and let the white run through.

 

 

If white is dripping down when you try to lift up the separator, just lightly jiggle the thing. Don't go too hard, breaking the yolk has DIRE consequences. (Egg whites can't be beaten stiff if there's ANY yolk in with them)

 

When all is said and done, you should have separated two eggs. If you don't have that fancy contraption, you can use the old school method of cracking the shell and shuffling the yolk back and forth between the two shell halves over a bowl. The contraption is pretty nice though, low stress.

Save the egg yolks for something else and walk over to your electric mixer (or metal or glass mixing bowl... NEVER plastic... egg whites can't be beaten stiff in a plastic bowl. Ask Alton Brown for answers on that one).

Dump the egg whites in the bowl of the mixture and add a little bit of cream of Tartar, found in the spice section of your grocery store. Cream of Tartar is derived from limestone and it helps stiffened egg whites hold their shape.

Turn your mixer on high for a few minutes. While you're waiting for the egg whites, take your powdered (or superfine) sugar and cocoa powder and mix them up in a bowl.

 

The result should look maybe a little lighter than that, depending on how much you love chocolate.

Also, take a handful of pecan and chop them in to little bits. The pecans replace chocolate chips in this recipe, since I don't want to risk adding additional moisture in to a meringue. The whole point is that they're perfectly dry.

 

 

By now your egg whites are holding stiff peaks and the surface of the whites is no longer shiny.

 

There's just one more test we can use to determine if the whites are ready... pull the bowl out of the mixer and flip it over.

 

Ta da! The egg whites stay plastered to the bottom of the bowl. NOTHING falls out. They are ready!

Put the bowl on the counter and grab a silicon spatula, or a wooden spoon.

Add in just a half teaspoon of vanilla and somewhere between a quarter and a third of the chocolate/sugar mixture.

 

Now, the structure of the egg whites is very fragile, so we must mix gently. We're going to fold the ingredients in.

First, put your spatula vertically in to the bowl.

 

Then, using a gentle sweeping motion, turn the glob you have over, switching the bottom and the top.

 

Now, repeat until the brown color is pretty evenly distributed. Add in a little more of the chocolate/sugar mixture and fold that in as well.

When you are satisfied that you've added enough, or when the mixture is all gone, sprinkle in the pecans.

 

Delicately fold those little guys in. They're heavy compared to everything else that's gone in, and that makes it a little more dangerous than the chocolate.

Now, preheat your toaster oven to its lowest setting, mine is 150 degrees. I took out one of my oven racks and double foiled it to make a small baking sheet.

Take a plastic bag and cut a hole in one of the bottom corners. Scoop in the meringue mixture and pipe meringues in what ever design strikes your fancy.

 

 

Not the prettiest meringues. They sure taste good though.

Now, place them in the warm oven for TWO HOURS! Think about it, the temperature is really low and the whole point of baking the cookies is to remove all of the moisture. So, it takes a while. This is a good time to point out that if it is raining, or really humid, the cookies will be almost impossible to make. Either bake them for longer, or abort the mission. Meringues MELT when exposed to moisture, that's why they feel so cool in your mouth. You also need to store them in an air tight container, and even then they may melt after a few days. Your best bet is to eat them fast. Not too hard of a task.

So, two hours (and my informative message) is up. Take them out of the oven, and remove them to a plate to cool.

 

  

  

Yum, these are good. Now I just have to find a use for those egg yolks.

Chocolate "Chip" Meringues

2 Extra Large eggs, separated

3 tbsp Confectioner's Sugar (or 1/3 cup superfine sugar)

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

1 1/2 tbsp Pecans, chopped

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or any mixing bowl that is not plastic) beat egg whites with cream of tartar until they hold stiff peaks and the surface of the whites is no longer glossy. To test for readiness, turn the bowl upside down. If the whites stay in, they're done.

2. Mix together the sugar and cocoa in a bowl and chop the pecans in to small cubes.

3. Fold in the vanilla and sugar and cocoa mixture, adding the sugar and cocoa gradually.

4. Gently fold in the Pecans.

5. Preheat your toaster oven to the lowest setting (preferably 150 degrees).

6. Using a plastic bag (or piping set) pipe the egg white mixture on to a baking sheet (or an improvised one) in any pattern.

7. Bake the cookies for about 2 hours, or until firm and dry.  Remove, cool, and enjoy.

Store in an air tight container at room temperature, they may keep for a few days in the winter. In the summer, eat them fast. Enjoy!