Meringaroons.  My own cross between a Meringue, and a Chocolate Macaron.  An absolute fluke that turned out oh so well…

Experimenting in the kitchen, still learning and refining my desserts, I came up with this little beauty…

• 4 egg whites
• 125g of white sugar
• 125g of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• some cocoa for dusting
• a pinch of salt

And to cook the things, you’ll need

• Mixmaster
• Baking Trays
• Piping bag
• Baking Paper

So, to prepare it.  And it’s pretty damn easy, but get your oven onto 150 degrees first…

Firstly, get your egg whites into the bowl of your Mixmaster.  Its actually a good idea to give the bowl a good wipe with a paper towel, just to make sure there are no oils on the steel.  This can affect how well the egg whites aerate, so take the time to give it a once over.  Add your pinch of salt and then whisk on the highest speed until stiff peaks are formed.

Gently rain (sprinkle for those who don’t want to sound like a tosser!) in the white sugar, whisk for a minute or two, then do the same with the icing sugar.  Whisk on high until you can get some of the mixture and rub it between your fingertips without feeling any grains of sugar.  This will take five minutes or so, give or take a few minutes.  Once done, drop in your vinegar, mix for a minute, drop in your vanilla, whisk for a minute, then add your cocoa and almond meal, and you guessed it, whisk for a minute, but this time on a medium speed, just to combine the mix.  Do a happy dance, that hard work is done.

Fill your piping bag with the mixture and pipe the meringaroon onto your backing trays, line with baking paper.  I like to make them about 4-5cm in size.  To get the ripples, I pipe on the one spot, gently and quickly raising and lowering the tip and then lift quickly at the end to get the “peak.”  Once all piped out, place them in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

After the time is up, take out one of the trays and give the meringaroons a tap, the shell should be firm.  Return the tray to the oven, and let them completely cool in there with the oven door slightly open.  If everything has worked out well, you should have a crust on your meringaroon around 1-3mm thick, with a ball of gooey, chewy chocolate awesomeness at the bottom.  They store well in a air tight container for a couple of weeks, if you can leave them that long.

I hope you like them.  This is one of those times where an experimentation in the kitchen, well, just works.