Mocha Chip Meringues

I don’t like meringues. They’re chalky and they hurt my teeth.

And even the flavoured ones tend to taste like paper. Paper dipped in sugar syrup and left on a hot windowsill to harden.

But it’s not really a fair judgement as I’ve had a lot of supermarket meringues.

These… these are not supermarket meringues.

After making a set of creme brûlées for a fancy dinner party (pronounced “faaaahncy dinnah pahty”) I had numerous egg whites just sitting around, begging to be turned into something. I used 3 of them for the salted caramel coffee macarons, but that barely made a dent.

I needed other egg white applications, but ones other than macarons weren’t really of my interests. Meringues made a lot of sense (and are so easy) but I didn’t want to make meringues.

Perhaps I was being too quick to judge. Childhood first impressions can be so hard to overcome.

Then I found a Martha Stewart recipe where the ratios of sugar to egg whites were much higher than I was used to seeing and I became intrigued.

It also had espresso and chocolate in it, two of my great weaknesses.

The ratio ended up being a beautiful thing, making a batter more closely resembling a loose marshmallow, and more importantly, baking into a meringue that was crisp on the outside, and flavourful and chewy on the inside.

And much unlike my memories of meringues, they were a tiny little flavour bombs of chocolate and coffee.

They didn’t taste like paper.

They didn’t hurt my teeth.

I may have eaten… more than my fair share.

But what is really “fair” anyway, when I was the one who made them all?

:)

I must try more meringues!

Recipe from Marta Stewart

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silcone mats; set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until frothy. Beating constantly, add sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes total (scrape down the bowl halfway through).
4. Add espresso powder and cocoa; beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.
5. Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake until crisp, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool completely on sheets, about 20 minutes.

Makes approx. 4 dozen meringues.

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