holiday treat week: chocolate chip meringues

Welcome to my second annual holiday treat week! Each day this week I will feature a special holiday treat, something I may only make at this time of year. We have several holiday dinners and events coming up and I always like to give new recipes a go before serving them to guests!

One of my nephews has recently gone gluten-free and my side of the family is having an early Christmas dinner soon and I am on dessert so I have decided to do a completely gluten free dessert table. I knew I wanted some sort of meringue and after researching several recipes, I decided to work with this one.

 

Chocolate Chip Meringues

adapted from marthastewart.com

Ingredients:

4 egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup white granulated sugar

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites, salt, cream of tartar and vanilla until soft peaks form.

3. Gradually add sugar, one Tablespoon at a time and then continue beating on high for about  1 1/2 more minutes until meringue is stiff and glossy.

4. Gently fold in chocolate chips.

5. Drop meringues onto lined baking sheets, using a heaping tablespoon full each for each meringue.

6. Bake until dry and just turning golden brown about 1- 1 1/2 hours. Let cool on baking sheets.

 

 

A few insider tips...

This recipe made 24 meringues for me and took almost the full 1 1/2 hours to bake. 

Wet your finger tips with a little bit of water to smooth the meringues a bit before baking them so you don't end up with any dark tips.

I had to open a couple of meringues during the baking process to make sure the meringue inside was cooked and "dry" (starting at the one hour point).

Instead of vanilla, I might add peppermint extract and swirl in a little red food gel for a candy cane kind of look for the holidays.

 Merry merry!

Comments

[Christy]

Can meringues be done without a stand mixer, or is that a must?

They look yummy!

[janice]

HI Christy-
Meringues can be done with hand mixer...especially if you have little helpers to hand off the hand mixer to every once in awhile! Marshmallow on the other hand, can apparently burn out the motor of a hand mixer!
Janice