Dairyland Veg: Mocha Meringue Cookies

I did it! I finally got to use my KitchenAid mixer to make meringues! Most importantly, I succeeded!

Whipping egg whites into meringue is one of the few things that I had to put off making until I had some type of electric mixer again. It's just too tough to do it well by hand. With a stand mixer, it was actually pretty easy. I always thought it would be much more difficult to get right. I read and reread several cookbook sections on proper technique. Finally, I gave it a go.

The result:

Not bad for a first try!

Mocha Meringue Cookies
Source: I followed the guide in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and improvised my own flavorings.
Yield: roughly 4 dozen 1-2 inch cookies

Ingredients:
4 egg whites at room temperature. It is very important that no yolk made it into the egg whites.
4 pinches of cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 cup superfine sugar or regular sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used natural)
1 tbsp espresso powder

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees F. Using a stand mixer or an electric mixer and a metal or glass bowl, beat the whites, cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt until they begin to hold peaks. Gradually add the sugar a bit at a time, and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the cocoa and espresso powder. It is fine if some streaks remain.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a pastry bag or a resealable bag with the corner snipped off to pipe mounds of meringue, each a couple of tablespoons. These cookies do not rise, so they can be fairly close together.
3. Bake until the cookies are hard and until they release easily from the parchment, about 2 hours. Turn off the oven and leave the door slightly ajar. Our oven closes on its own, so I put an oven mitt in the door to prop it open a bit. Let the meringues cool in the oven for at least another hour. When they have cooled, place the meringues in an airtight container immediately. If you leave them out, they will pull in moisture and before you know it, they will be incredibly sticky. If this happens, pop them back in the oven at 200 degrees F for a few minutes, until they are dry to the touch. Cool again, and seal them up.

Notes:
1. Make sure not to use a plastic bowl. Plastic is closely related to fat and can harbor even the slightest amount that will deflate your eggs.
2. My meringues had pretty streaks of the cocoa and espresso powder throughout. It is much more important not to over mix your meringue mixer than to get rid of these streaks.
3. I highly recommend looking at videos, pictures, and recipes online to get a sense of what your whites are supposed to look like. But, don't get discouraged by horror stories. These cookies were a lot easier to make than most things led me to believe. I have come to the conclusion that some people just don't belong in the kitchen.
4. Save this recipe for a day that isn't really humid. Or, just make sure the AC is on.
5. The more fine your sugar is, the better the meringues will be. I used regular white sugar and my meringues were good, but the texture just improves with finer sugar. I've read that you can just pulse regular sugar in a food processor, but I didn't try it.