Dark Chocolate Meringue Cookies

I am in love with a healthy treat and can’t wait any longer to share them with you.  Okay, I’m guessing you’ve heard of and probably tasted meringue cookies.  I made these recently when I had one little egg white that I didn’t want to waste.  I did a quick ingredient search on Allrecipes and found these cookies.

These are a perfect little touch of chocolate, sweet and protein as I’m trying to be careful with the things I eat right now.  There is no fat (okay, a little tiny bit in the chocolate coating—but it’s good, dark bittersweet chocolate, so it’s not bad!).  These have just a little sugar and protein from egg whites.  That’s it.  But they make for the perfect bite of crunch with a little chew and CHOCOLATE!  I would make these for any other occasion, not just because they are healthy.  They are great plain and/or dipped in chocolate.  I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa, which I also think added to the extra chocolaty goodness.

Dark Chocolate Meringue Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (adapted from Allrecipes)

1 egg white

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon dark cocoa

1 ounce dark chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon shortening

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Sift the cocoa in a small fine mesh sieve so it has no lumps.  Set aside.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

With an electric hand mixer, beat egg white and vanilla until soft peaks form (1 egg is not enough for a stand mixer to work—but this recipe can easily be doubled or tripled and then a stand mixer would be great!).  Gradually add the sugar while beating the egg white until stiff peaks form.   Fold in the cocoa until thoroughly combined.  Put the mixture in a piping bag (or even just drop spoonfuls of the batter onto the baking sheet), and pipe onto the baking sheet, using the star tip.  Make the cookies only about 1 inch in diameter.  They can be spaced pretty close together as they don’t spread. 

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and leave cookies on sheet to cool.  Melt the dark chocolate in a microwave safe dish in 15 second intervals.  When melted, stir in the shortening.  Dip half of each cookie in the chocolate and set on a wax paper lined plate.  Chill until chocolate is hardened.  Try not to eat them all in one sitting. ;) This small batch makes about 18.

  

Plain—good!  I plan to even make some that are just vanilla, and maybe even with other flavorings and colors.  How fun would a plateful be with some pink, blue, green, white, chocolate, etc.  I am in love with these.  Just making sure I got that point across. ;)