Meringues are magical, airy little desserts with stunning peaks. A good meringue is hard to beat. Literally. Do your biceps (and your dessert) a favour and use a stand mixer to whisk your egg whites to perfection. (HAMILTON BEACH’s 7 Speed Orbital Stand Mixer is our go-to). For this recipe, we decided to use orange extract to counteract the bitterness of the dark chocolate, but you can easily substitute for another extract like mint, lemon or go nuts with almond.
Meringue Ingredients:
· 4 Egg whites
· ½ Tsp Cream of Tartar
· ¼ Tsp salt
· 1 Cup Sugar
· ½ tsp vanilla extract
· 1 ½ tsp orange extract
· 1 Cup Dark chocolate chips
Pro Tip: Room temperature eggs will achieve greater volume.
Tools:
· 14” piping bag
Pro Tip: Make sure your bowl is spotless. Any traces of grease or fat will prevent egg whites from getting stiff.
Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Separate your eggs; you will only be using the whites for this recipe. Save the yokes in your fridge! They are great for making fresh pasta.
3. Place your egg whites and cream of tartar in your mixer and slowly increase speed.
4. Add 2 Tbsp of sugar at a time to the mixer, allowing time for the sugar to dissolve. You don’t want to have sugar granules in your cookies.
5. Your egg whites will start to thicken, and peak, as the sugar fully integrates.
6. Once your meringue has formed, and you have added all of the sugar, turn down the speed of your mixer and add your extract flavorings.
7. Line a baking sheet with two layers of parchment paper and fill your piping bag with your meringue.
8. Begin piping your meringue onto your lined baking sheet. You can pipe your cookies quite close together since they won’t expand while baking.
9. Once piped on your baking sheet, place in your oven and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.
10. After an hour, turn off your oven and leave your meringues in the oven to cool for an additional hour.
11. 15 minutes before your meringues are fully cooled, melt 1 cup of dark chocolate chips in a double boiler (or a heat resistant bowl over a pot of boiling water).
12. Take your cooled meringues and dip the bottom of your cookie in the melted dark chocolate and place back on your baking sheet to cool/dry.
TAGS: dark chocolate, dessert, meringue, orange, Sylvanus Urban
CATEGORIES: dessert, Sylvanus Urban
