Chocolate Meringue Cookies
Made with simple pantry staples and drenched in smooth dark chocolate for just the right amount of indulgence, chocolate meringues are a treat that’s both simple and exquisite. They’re also irresistible; It’s almost impossible to eat just one! If you’ve never made meringues before, there’s a bit of technique involved for them come out just right every time. While not terribly difficult, there is a slight learning curve so I’ve included lots of tips and tricks and photos below not to intimidate you, but to educate and hopefully avoid any hiccups and wasted ingredients (you can also check out my basic meringue video, if a tutorial helps!). Meringues aren’t only tasty, they’re also a good intro for making meringue for other recipes, like angel food cake, Swiss meringue buttercream, or the elusive French macaron.
Get to Know This Recipe
Texture: Light and airy with a crisp bite. They can become chewy if exposed to moisture, but I include an easy solution for that (read on!). Taste: Rich chocolate flavor from the cookies themselves and that gorgeous dark chocolate coating. Technique: Not the simplest of cookies, since we are dealing with egg whites here; however, even beginners can be successful if they follow my tips! Time: Meringues aren’t quick to make, but they are worth the wait (and they’re much simpler than their fussy cousin, the chocolate macaron)! This recipe takes an hour to bake and then needs to cool for another 1-2 hours. If you want a faster chocolate fix, try my flourless chocolate cookies or double chocolate chip cookies instead!
Ingredients
Chocolate meringues require just seven ingredients. As always, I’ll review a few of the important ones before we get started!
Egg whites. Separate your own eggs (do NOT use carton egg whites, their success rate is too spotty) and be extremely careful to not get even a drop of yolk into the egg whites. Also, make sure you are adding your egg whites into a clean, dry, grease-free bowl. Cocoa powder. I use and recommend natural cocoa powder. While Dutch process cocoa will work here, none of my taste testers preferred the chocolate meringues made with Dutch cocoa to the ones made with natural. Whichever you use, make sure you sift your cocoa powder before adding it. We want a totally smooth batter, but we also don’t want to over-mix by trying to work out any cocoa powder lumps with a spatula. Cream of tartar. This stabilizes our egg whites. While cream of tartar is sometimes skipped in meringue, I consider it like “training wheels” for making a successful meringue (and always include it when making macarons), so I recommend it. Sugar. Regular granulated sugar works just fine here. Chocolate (for dipping!). I recommend semisweet or dark chocolate melting wafers or couverture chocolate (which is what I used today). Chocolate chips will also work, but they don’t melt as nicely, since they are specifically designed to hold their shape, and they’re more likely to streak after the chocolate has cooled.
SAM’S TIP: If you don’t want to waste the spare egg yolks, save them to make lemon bars or lemon crumb bars, banana pudding, a lemon tart, or my german chocolate cake. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Meringues
SAM’S TIP: Once you hit stiff peaks, stop! Over-mixing the batter is just as bad as not beating it enough and can cause the meringue to break down. SAM’S TIP: If you’ve never melted chocolate before, check out my post on how to melt chocolate chips in the microwave. This will help you avoid some of the common pitfalls that lead to seized (grainy!) chocolate. Feel free to get creative with your decoration. You could always sprinkle some crushed peppermint candies over the melted chocolate for a chocolate peppermint twist! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜 I originally published this recipe over on The Recipe Critic in December of 2017. I’ve since updated the photos and post here to include more helpful information and details.
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