Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Experiment #8: Chocolate Meringue Cookies

These are in the oven at the moment and I already know these are going to be a complete and utter failure, but for the sake of journalistic integrity, here's my report!

I got the idea for these from Allrecipes.com of course, but then found a cool site called GreenLite Bites that specifically used stevia (yay!) in a meringue cookie recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar (actually I didn't use it all, maybe 1/3 of it was left)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 T sugar
• 1/4 tsp stevia
• 1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• pinch of salt

1. I beat the egg whites until they were frothy, then added the cream of tartar and beat until gentle peaks formed (I should have added vanilla at this point, but I forgot)
2. I combined the sugar, stevia, and salt and slowly beat them into the egg mixture until stiffer peaks formed
3. I folded in the cocoa, but the mixture got all bubbly and started breaking down. This did not happen last time I made chocolate meringue cookies.
4. I scooped the mixture into a freezer bag and cut off a corner to squirt dollops onto a cookie sheet. This worked perfect last time, but this time they were runny.
5. I am now baking these for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Calories: 8 per cookie (made 25 cookies)
Thoughts: Ugh, I just peeked through the oven door and the cookies have flattened into road kill! There are a couple reasons this recipe may have gone wrong besides the stevia... I forgot the vanilla so added it last, or maybe the peaks weren't quite stiff enough when I folded in the cocoa. Also, I only had two eggs so I scaled the recipe to fit and who knows what happens when you do that!
Update: I took these out of the oven and they are not edible. I can barely scrape them off the cookie sheet and they taste burnt anyway --sigh-- I hate failure.
I am still excited about the possibilities of this recipe! I need more eggs, however, before I try again. Maybe I will make the next batch plain, just to get my technique down. I have made meringue cookies successfully before, but they can be tricky to get right.