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These little meringue bites are lighter than air but packed with orange flavor and kicked up with chocolate chips for extra decadence. It will take great restraint not to eat them like popcorn! Buy these at the store and pay a fortune. Make them at home for pennies. Good for gluten-free and low-fat diets. If you omit the chocolate chips, they are fat-free.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hours,
Ingredients:
- 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 cup superfine granulated sugar (see Note)
- 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
- 1 Tablespoon grated orange zest (see Note)
- 1/2 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Chill mixing bowl and beaters for 15 minutes.Preheat oven to 250 F. Line cookie sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar a tablespoon at a time until all sugar is incorporated and melted into the meringue. The meringue should be shiny and form stiff peaks.
Fold in orange extract, grated orange zest, and miniature chocolate chips.
Drop by scant teaspoonfuls (or use a pastry bag) onto prepared cookie sheets, placing cookies about 1 inch apart. (You want these bite-sized to pop the whole cookie into your mouth. Larger ones are fine but make a crumbly mess when you bite into them.)
Bake about 1 hour until stiff and dry. Turn off oven, but leave meringue cookies in the oven until cool to further dry out, another 2 hours.
Store in an airtight container.
Yield: about 5 dozen meringue cookies, depending on size
Note: If you cannot find superfine granulated sugar, measure 1 cup plus 1 tsp of granulated table sugar in a small food processor and process about 2 minutes. Do not use confectioners' sugar. It contains cornstarch. Save your knuckles and use a microplane to grate the orange zest. You'll also save time and get a finer grate of zest that better incorporates into these feather-light cookies.
Photo © 2006 Peggy Trowbridge, licensed to About.com, Inc.
