After I made this year's Mardi Gras King Cake, I had five leftover egg whites that I wanted to put to good use. While I certainly could have done something healthy like a vegetable-packed egg white omelette, my mind unfortunately kept veering towards more sinful concoctions. After a day or two of consideration (I placed the leftover whites in a covered bowl in the fridge), I decided to modify an AllRecipes approach for chocolate meringue cookies.
The meringues get their double chocolate flavor from both cocoa powder and chocolate chips, and like most meringues, are very simple to make.
I modified the recipe a bit based on the AllRecipes comments and my 5 egg whites instead of 3 called for in the original recipe. I used approx. 1 cup of white sugar, and also just eyeballed the amount of cocoa and mini chocolate chips to what seemed reasonable.
The latter actually worked out well, with a subtle chocolate flavor emerging from the cookies. The former didn't work out that well as even 1 cup of sugar was far too much for this portion of egg whites. In the future, I will probably reduce the sugar amount by at least a third.
I also initially crowded too many meringues onto my first baking sheet (they were also probably a little too large) so they were still a bit soft after 30 minutes of baking. My second tray was more spaced out, and resulted in a more cookie-like meringue.
All in all, this was a great base meringue approach that can be easily customized further in the future. I can't wait to make more of these delicious treats!
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