Chocolate Meringue Cookies

[Baked on 9 Mar 2013]
I still had some egg whites leftover from my CNY baking, and was wondering how to use it. Then I saw a post on Chocolate Meringue Cookies from Joy of Baking in FB, and decided to bake it. As discussed in the FB comments, we were told not to reduce the sugar as it will affect the crispiness of the cookies. I reduce it from 200g to 160g anyway. I found that the cookies were able to stay crisp. However, I realised that the baking time for me was too short as the cookies wasn't able to pull away from the parchment paper easily. I had difficulties separating them to. Having said that, the cookies were really nice. It had a crisp outer and a very chewy inner.

Recipe for Chocolate Meringue Cookies, adapted from Joy of Baking.
Makes approx. 50 1" cookies

Ingredients:
100g Egg whites (approx. 3 eggs)
160g Caster sugar
15g Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 130C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. 
2. Put the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugar has melted and is warm to the touch (about 2-5 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and wipe the bottom of the bowl to remove any condensation.
5. Using an electric whisk, beat on high speed until the meringue is stiff with glossy peaks and cool to the touch.
6. Sift the cocoa powder over the meringue and with a large spatula, gently fold the cocoa powder into the meringue. Mix well.
7. Before placing the cookies on the parchment paper, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding.
8. With piping bag and a star nozzle, pipe the meringues on your prepared baking tray.
9. Sift a little more cocoa powder over the meringues.
10. As soon as you put the meringues into the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 100C and bake the meringues for approximately 90mins (1.5hrs), or until the meringues have a crisp outside crust and release easily from the parchment paper. (If you break one open, the inside will be soft and marshmallowy. The longer you bake the Meringues, the firmer they will be inside.)
11. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. The meringues can be covered and stored at room temperature for 2-3 days (depending on humidity).

Wholemeal Egg White and Cream Loaf Bread

I must admit, I'm really slacking in updating my blog. Well, actually not really. I have been baking the usual cakes and what-nots, therefore, I found no value add in updating my blog. Okay, my excuses. Pardon me.

I haven't been baking breads or buns for the longest time. I can only conclude that (1) I have other more important bakes (2) there isn't enough time for the bread process. Okay, enough of my excuses.

I'll just have to admit that this is a backlog. I made this Egg White and Cream Loaf Bread a couple of weeks back. Thanks to HBS for sharing the recipe. The bread was really soft, and there was a slight hint of cream/milk taste in it. To make myself less guilty, I used some wholemeal flour too!

[Pardon the colours on my photos. I'm still trying to find a suitable white balance for my lousy fuji film camera. o_o"]

I also want to share that quite sometime back, my dear friend, Doris, gave me some of her home-made chocolate pasta. Yes, it's chocolate pasta!! I really love the chocolate taste in the pasta, it's so chocky and it went well with the cream! It left a chocolate after taste, which made me think about it after I had them! I'll have to say, she gave me all the necessary ingredients, and I just have to follow her instructions to cook and eat! Thanks Doris! Now, I'll just have to convince my hubby to let me buy the pasta maker...  I shall make it my birthday wish, so that he cannot reject me! LOL!