Cavalock and The Meringue Formulation

Making meringues is probably the easiest thing to bake. Anyone can do it and you really can't go wrong. Did it before and the results were pretty good so when I saw a book just on making meringues at Kinokuniya last week, I immediately grabbed it! Besides it's their 20% off weekend.

Now this is a crazy ass book. I mean, there are all kinds of weird meringue recipes here. Garlic meringue minarets with beetroot borscht, meringue sushi and Mexican meringue chili chips are just some of the more lip-smacking, eye-popping ones.

Anyway, decided to try the conservative cover recipe chocolate swirl meringues.

You got your eggs, sugar and a half bar of Verona dark chocolate. Well, after the above pix was taken, I started doing my stuff, the phone rang, bake, wash, clean and I forgot to take any more pix until I popped them in the oven below. :P

Fortunately everything turned out good. Light crunchy exterior with a chewy yummy inside.

Next time I'm doing it, I'll use less sugar as the dark choc is already quite sweet. Like I said before, am not a big fan of dark choc but this looked simple and quick enough to do in half an afternoon plus them swirls looked damn arty to me.

Chocolate Swirl Meringues

Quick rundown of the recipe from the book, this is freakin' easy, you are gonna need 3 egg whites, 150g of caster sugar ad 140g of dark chocolate. I know there are 4 eggs in the above pix but I only used 3.

Preheat the oven to 90ºC. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Melt the dark chocolate over a pan of simmering water.

Whisk the egg whites with an electric whisk on medium speed, for about a minute. Then increase the speed till soft peaks begin to form. Still whisking, start adding the sugar a few spoonfuls at a time. Keep whisking till the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is stiff and shiny.

Now that's all the regular meringue making part, here's the unique chocolate part. Gently pour the melted choc into the mixture and with only one or two folding motions, fold the choc into the mixture. DO NOT mix it up otherwise you ain't gonna get them cool swirling patterns.

Spoon on to the baking sheet, making cloud shapes about 10cm round. Put them into the oven for about one and a half hours or until the meringues are dry to the touch but have not changed color.

Let them all cool completely before removing them from the baking parchment. They should keep in an airtight container for 3 days.