Chocolate Meringue Cookies

You need only six ingredients to bake a batch of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate meringue cookies. The delicate, star-shaped treats are customizable and perfect for parties and holiday cookie swaps. While making meringue can be intimidating for novice bakers, a few easy tips will help you master the technique and achieve the best chewy-crisp texture. Start with room-temperature egg whites, use a clean stainless steel bowl and beat the mixture until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Once you learn this chocolate meringue cookie recipe, you can add an endless roster of meringue desserts to your baking rotation, from other meringue cookies to pies and pavlovas.

Ingredients for Chocolate Meringue Cookies

• Egg whites: The fat in yolks prevents meringue from whipping up properly, so you must carefully separate the egg whites from the yolks.
• Vanilla: A good vanilla extract infuses the cookies with pure flavor; it’s much better than imitation vanilla flavoring produced with artificial ingredients. You can even whip up some homemade vanilla extract from scratch with some planning.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar, one of the essential components of meringue, adds sweetness to the cookies. To help ensure your mixture is extra smooth, use superfine sugar, which absorbs into the egg whites more easily. You can buy superfine sugar at the store or pulse granulated sugar in a food processor.
• Cocoa powder: Cocoa powder gives the meringue cookies their rich, chocolatey flavor. Because this recipe has only a few ingredients, using the best cocoa powder and other quality ingredients is essential.
• Chocolate glaze: Semisweet chocolate chips and a touch of shortening make a lovely, shiny chocolate glaze. Omit if you want unadorned chocolate meringue cookies.

Directions

Step 1: Prepare the egg whites

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and let them stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Editor’s Tip: Make sure your egg whites don’t have any trace of yolks, which contain fat that will deflate your meringue. Baking with room-temperature eggs ensures they’ll mix more evenly, and you’ll get more volume in the meringue.

Step 2: Make the meringue

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Add vanilla to the egg whites and beat at medium speed until soft peaks form (at this point, they’ll briefly hold their shape before sinking into the bowl).

Editor’s Tip: For the best results, use a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a hand-held mixer. Whipping egg whites by hand requires a lot of arm strength and stamina! Make sure the equipment is clean and thoroughly dried; any fat or food will prevent the eggs from whipping correctly.

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Then, gradually add the sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, until stiff, tall peaks form and the sugar dissolves. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300°F.

Editor’s Tip: Your stiff peaks should be thick and fluffy, like shaving cream.

Step 3: Add the cocoa

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Gently fold in the cocoa.

Editor’s Tip: Be careful not to overbeat your meringue. That can cause the mixture to weep (release water) and become grainy, impacting the texture of your cookies.

Step 4: Pipe the meringue

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Line baking sheets with parchment. Insert a large open star tip into a piping bag and fill it half full with meringue. Squeeze the bag gently to pipe out the stars (about 1-1/4-inch diameter) onto the prepared sheets.

Test Kitchen Tip: If you don’t have a piping bag, drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the meringue onto the baking sheets.

Step 5: Bake

Bake the chocolate meringues for 30 to 35 minutes until lightly browned. Remove them from the pans with a spatula and cool the cookies on wire racks.

Step 6: Dip the cookies in glaze

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In the microwave, melt the chocolate chips and shortening, and stir the glaze until smooth. Dip each cookie halfway into the glaze, allowing excess chocolate to drip off. Place them on waxed paper and let the stars sit at room temperature until set.

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Recipe Variations

• Go glazeless: The cocoa powder gives the meringue enough chocolate flavor for the cookies to be delicious without glaze.
• Get creative with toppings: Swap in butterscotch or white chocolate chips to whip up a different glaze. Or, instead of using a glaze, bedazzle your meringue cookies with sprinkles, chocolate chips or crushed hard candy.
• Forgo the chocolate: Who needs chocolate? Make elegant and simple vanilla meringue cookies instead.
• Minty meringue cookies: Leave out the cocoa powder, add a couple of drops of red food coloring and sprinkle the meringue cookies with crushed candy canes, similar to peppermint meringue cookies.

How to Store Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Store your chocolate meringues in an airtight container at room temperature, away from humidity and heat. Avoid cookie storage mistakes like skipping parchment to layer the cookies in the container; parchment helps prevent the cookies from sticking to each other. While they keep well in the freezer, meringues stored in the refrigerator may become sticky and crumbly.

How long do chocolate meringue cookies last?

If stored properly in an airtight container, chocolate meringue cookies last up to two weeks at room temperature and up to two months in the freezer.

Can you freeze chocolate meringue cookies?

You can freeze baked meringue cookies in an airtight container for up to two months. When you’re ready for a sweet treat, defrost them on a plate at room temperature.

Chocolate Meringue Cookie Tips

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How can you ensure crispy chocolate meringue cookies?

To achieve the right crunchy-chewy texture, beat your eggs long enough to reach the glossy, stiff peak stage before piping out the meringue. It could take up to seven minutes. Storing baked meringue cookies in the freezer also helps them stay crispy, thanks to the chilly, dry air (just build in some defrosting time when you’re ready to serve them).

Why didn’t my meringue whip up?

There could be several reasons why your meringue didn’t come together. Any trace of grease or water from a speck of egg yolk, a light film of oil or droplets of water inside your bowl will stop the egg whites from whipping properly. Make your meringue with a clean, dry stainless steel or copper bowl to set yourself up for fluffy peak success.

What can you do with extra egg yolks?

Save the extra egg yolks for custards such as creme brulee, vanilla ice cream or savory dishes like mayonnaise.

What can I do if I overmix my meringue?

If your meringue becomes lumpy and grainy, sometimes there’s no turning back and you might have to start over (it happens to the best of us). But if you notice the mixture turning into the texture of curdled milk before it’s too late, try adding an extra egg white to bring moisture back to the meringue.

Why did my cookies fall flat after baking?

If your chocolate meringues turned into little pancakes, the meringue may have deflated. That can happen if you squeeze the piping bag too tightly. Be extra gentle and leave a gap between the tip of the bag and the parchment so you don’t push the air out of the meringue by pressing it against the baking sheet.