Chocolate Meringues
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
(makes 8 discs and approximately 15 kisses)
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cocoa, sifted
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Heat oven to 225° F. On a large piece of parchment paper, trace 8 2 ¼” circles. Turn the paper over and place it on a baking sheet.
Sift the sugar and cornstarch into a small bowl.
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, vanilla, and salt at high speed until very soft peaks form – this will take 30-40 seconds. Reduce the mixer speed to medium, and slowly stream in the sugar mixture down the side of the bowl. Once all the sugar has been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 40 seconds. Add the cocoa powder and mix until it is fully incorporated and no streaks remain.
Transfer the meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (or you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off – it’s what I used for many years). Following the traced line of the circles, pipe the meringue into a spiral. After you have piped 8 circles, pipe the remaining meringue into 1” wide and 1” high spirals.
Bake the meringues for 1 hour, rotating the pan halfway through. After an hour, turn off the oven, but leave the meringues in the oven for at least 1 hour so that they can fully dry out.
The meringues can be made up to a week in advance and stored in an airtight container.
2 comments:
This dessert looks amazing so I'm trying it...the first thing I noticed, however, in trying to make the meringues is that, while you call for 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, you then don't tell when/where to use it. So I tried it with the sugar/corn starch sifting process and it really didn't work. I reverted to a different recipe I found online - which has the addition of cream of tartar - and found that you fold in the cocoa later - and that worked well, along with the cream of tartar. So you may want to revise this recipe. I'm starting now because I'm hoping to have all the parts done by Valentine's day!
Laurie - Thank you for pointing that out! I fixed the recipe to indicate that the cocoa powder should be added after beating the meringue to the point where it holds stiff glossy peaks.
I hope it turns out well for you!
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