Cocoa Meringue Cookies

You will need half of a lemon

10x13 parchment paper lined baking sheet

3 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

pinch of salt

3/4 cups of sugar

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean (trust me its magical)

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

and a great chocolate for melting

You will need a few bowls to complete this recipe. One for chocolate and two for separating the egg and egg whites. Preheat your oven to 275*f. Combine your regular and powdered sugar. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out all that caviar goodness and drop it into the bowl of sugar.

First thing before doing anything is take you half lemon and rub the inside of the mixing bowl you will be using to beat the egg whites into a meringue. This will help get any fat or other residue off the bowl. After wipe it clean with a paper towel. One killer to a beautiful meringue is underlying fats, like butter or bits of its own yolk when you are starting to incorporate air.

Next, separate you egg yolks from the eggs. Place your two bowls next to each other. One for egg shells and yolks and one for egg whites. Take one hand, palm up and hover it over the egg whites bowl and dump the egg in your hand. Allowing the egg whites to slip through your fingers. Put the yolk in the other spare bowl or dumb out. Doing this will make sure you won't have yolk in the whites and you won't run across a bad egg. Pour the egg whites into your mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl).

Once you have all your egg whites in your mixing bowl add your cream of tartar and a pinch of salt. Mix on medium/high (if you are using a mixer) until peaks have formed. After peaks have formed, drop the speed to medium and gradually add your sugar. Once all the sugar is added turn your speed back up to medium high and beat until sugar is fully incorporated and you have glossy stiff peaks in the meringue. Finally beat in the vanilla extract.

Now for the fun part. If you do not wish to use chocolate then you can use, freeze dried raspberries, gel food coloring, or any different extracts you love. The sky is the limit.

With your cocoa powder is a bowl add about half of your meringue and mix it till combined. In another bowl with the rest of the meringue take your melted chocolate and drizzle it across the meringue. Do not mix the chocolate. Use a spoon or two to make little droplet sizes on your parchment paper. You can also use a piping bag by drizzling the sides of the bag with your melted chocolate and full the bag with the rest of your meringue. This way you can pipe them into cute cookies.

Put them in the oven and bake for 50 minutes to a hour. DO NOT OPEN OVEN WHILE COOKING! That can cause the meringues to fall. After the hour is up crack the oven door and let them cool. The cookies should peel off the parchment paper easily. If you want to get crazy like we did you can take the cocoa meringue cookies and dip them in the left over melted chocolate.

If you want a softer cookie texture you can cook them on 200*f for over a hour. Turn the oven off and let them cook with the oven door closed.

Thanks again for wandering through our recipes during cookie week. We hope you enjoy.