Meringue Cookies

Experiment #8 (part II): Improved Meringue Cookies



Vanilla with sprinkles

So this time I brushed up on my meringue skills using the Joy of Baking website. It's really the little things when making meringue. The cookies came out great this time!

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 6 T sugar (1/4 cup plus 2 T)
• 1/4 tsp stevia (I meant to use 1/4 tsp anyway... I don't know how much I really used)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1. I beat the egg whites until they were frothy, then added the cream of tartar and beat until gentle peaks formed
2. I gradually beat the sugar into the egg mixture until stiff peaks formed
3. I would have added just a 1/4 tsp of stevia at this point, but my 18 mos old was sitting next to me and he yanked the lid off the jar spraying stevia everywhere--including into the mixing bowl. I just left it at that
4. I slowly beat in the vanilla
5. At this point, I divided the mix in half and piped the plain mixture onto parchment paper and put in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees
6. I folded the cocoa into the 2nd half and the mixture did start softening up a bit, but not as bad as last time
7. I also piped the cocoa mixture onto parchment paper and baked for 25 minutes at 300 degrees

Nutrition Facts:

Vanilla Cookies: 45 calories per serving of 5 cookies (40 cookies per batch) vs 150 calories per serving for cookies made with sugar, Total Fat 0.0g, Sodium 21mg, Total Carbs 9.6g, Protein 1.4g

Chocolate Cookies: 60 calories per serving of 5 cookies (30 cookies per batch) vs 200 calories per serving for cookies made with sugar, Total Fat 0.1g, Sodium 28mg, Total Carbs 13g, Protein 1.9g



Chocolate with cocoa dusting
Thoughts: These came out sooooo much better than my first attempt. Oddly, my children preferred the vanilla batch. I think it was because of the sprinkles, but my oldest actually put his chocolate cookie down and said, "Mom, this tastes really bad." My second son finished them off though, so they must have been okay for him at least. I liked them. Oh, I should add that the chocolate cookies do deflate a bit when the cocoa is mixed in. They are softer and more pancake shaped vs. the Hershey Kiss shaped vanilla cookies.
I am going to consider these my "control" batch. For future attempts, I will gradually decrease the sugar until I find the minimum amount I can use and still have nice stiff peaks.
**Note to self: I made a meringue dessert today that used 4 egg whites and 1/3 cup sugar and it came out well. Next time maybe use 4 egg whites and 1/4 cup sugar).

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.