I was recently asked by a blogging sister, Dee Dee, to do a guest post for her Blogger’s Recipe Roundup. I was thrilled to be a part of it, and I decided right away that I wanted to do something geared towards Valentine’s Day, since it’s right around the corner, but I wanted it to be something super simple (and still delicious). I settled on meringues. Not just any meringues, though. I made my favorite meringues: sweet raspberry flavored ones, tinted pink, and filled with chocolate!
The first time I encountered meringues, I was sure I wouldn’t like them. As pretty as they were, they didn’t fill my definition of a cookie, i.e. lots of butter, sugar, and flour…usually with chocolate in some form or another. Instead, these are light, airy, delicate little things with just a few basic ingredients…none of which were in my definition, except sugar. But I gave them a try anyway, and was very pleasantly surprised! I still don’t know if I would define them as cookies, they honestly strike me more as being a candy, but either way, I fell hard for these things! I still thought they needed chocolate, though. A little research revealed to me that there are several recipes for these out there that have them dipped in chocolate, or that has chocolate ganache sandwiched between two of them. And I’ve tried many of those recipes…they’re all wonderful! But isn’t there an easier way to add a little gooey chocolate to these, than making a ganache or melting, dipping, and drying? As a matter of fact there is, and you’ll really love it!
These are so simple, you only need four ingredients to make them: sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, and raspberry extract. And if you want them to be chocolate filled (and why wouldn’t you?!), then you’ll also need chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, and/or white chocolate).
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar. Place the bowl on top of a medium sauce pan filled with a couple of inches of barely simmering water and set over medium heat. Gently whisk the mixture constantly until the sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes. Transfer the bowl to the standing mixer (if you’re not using a standing mixer, just remove the bowl from heat and use a hand mixer), and whisk the mixture on high until stiff peaks form. Stir in the extract and food coloring, if using.
This is where the chocolate finally comes in to play. This is so easy peasy, it’s gonna blow your mind! Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Place chocolate chips about 1 1/2- to 2-inches apart on the sheet. I made a few milk chocolate, a few white, a few semi-sweet…the semi-sweet filled meringues were, by far, my favorite. The hubster liked all three, with the white chocolate and the semi-sweet coming in ahead of the milk chocolate, and the kiddo thought all three flavors were equally good.
Fit a pastry bag with a Wilton #30 star tip (or comparable), fill with the meringue, and pipe small (3/4-inch-high) star shapes onto prepared baking sheets, centering each star on top of a chocolate chip. I told you it’d be easy! This tiny little step takes these meringues from basic to incredible, with pretty much zero effort! I love tricks like that!
Bake cookies at 175 degrees until crisp but not brown, about 1 hour 40 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
These little cuties are so fast to mix up, and they naturally beautiful looking with very little effort! I love to fill a pretty platter or candy bowl with them for a party. Plus, they stay good for a few days, so making them ahead of time is easily done! Just keep them covered in an airtight container until ready to serve.
I also made a few large meringues by placing a trio of chocolate chips on the baking sheet, then piping a swirl of meringue over them. I love the little ones because they’re so bite sized, but these look really lovely lined up on a plate.
If you’ve never had meringues, you’re in for a treat! They’re crisp, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth, and you can flavor them with just about any flavor you like. Any and all extracts work well in them, as well as zests and flower waters. You can also skip the chocolate if you like, or replace it with dried fruit or nuts instead! These would be an excellent homemade sweet to box up and give to your love for Valentine’s Day! I hope you give them a try! They’re definitely worth it for their ease and prettiness, but mostly for how scrumptious they are! Enjoy!
Raspberry Meringue Kisses
Makes 3 to 6 dozen (depending on the how big you make them)
Ingredients
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon raspberry extract (or another flavor, if preferred)
Food coloring, optional
1/4 to 1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional
Preheat oven to 175 degrees (80 C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Place chocolate chips about 1 1/2- to 2-inches apart on the sheet.
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar. Place the bowl on top of a medium sauce pan filled with a couple of inches of barely simmering water and set over medium heat. Gently whisk the mixture constantly until the sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes. Transfer the bowl to the standing mixer (if you’re not using a standing mixer, just remove the bowl from heat and use a hand mixer), and whisk the mixture on high until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in the extract and food coloring, if using.
Fit a pastry bag with a Wilton #30 star tip (or comparable), fill with the meringue, and pipe small (3/4-inch-high) star shapes onto prepared baking sheets, centering each star on top of a chocolate chip. Refill bag as necessary.
Bake cookies until crisp but not brown, about 1 hour 40 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
Recipe by Darla
Absolutely LOVE this idea! I can never get my meringue stiff enough. 🙁
Little tricks are to
Use a steel bowl that is perfectly dry; and
Put the room temp egg whites in a seperate dish before you add them to the mixture (just to make sure that there are no yolks at all, nothing worse than adding that last egg and a bit of yolk falling in)
You may already be doing this but thought it might help
Cheers
Melissa
I’m making these again this morning to put in favor bags for my daughter’s first birthday. I wanted to comment on meringue not getting stiff enough…
That happens to me too when I make stiff peaks for pies, but for some reason I’ve had this meringue cookie recipe come out perfectly both times! Something about pre-cooking the sugar/egg whites over the boiling water, I think.
I also wanted to add that two times now I’ve had to turn the oven off after only an hour of baking, but I leave the cookies in the oven and several hours later they are cooled down and cooked perfectly! Another method for baking perhaps?
OOOHH I’m gonna have to try these!! YUM!!
You know what? You’ve done it again! I’ve always loved meringue, and as a natural lover of chocolate tried the dipped-in-chocolate kind. But they’re not the same. I find you lose that crisp yet soft first crunch of the meringue with the gently cracking of the chocolate as you bite into them. This however, I had never even considered! And I think of myself as being inventive in the kitchen… Thanks for the inspiration!
I’ve made dipped before too…the first time I made these, I came thisclose to dipping them! But I was feeling really lazy, so I thought I’d experiment and they worked great! They maintain the texture and bite that you want in a meringue perfectly. I hope you like them!
Gorgeous! I would love cupid to bring me a few of these:)
So adorable! I love raspberry and chocolate together!
I’ve done dipped before, and liked them but didn’t love the “mouthfeel”.
Wondering if I can find raspberry extract somewhere (other than ordering online) . . . .
You should be able to get it locally pretty easy…I was able to find my extract with all of the other extracts at the grocery store (stateside).
I did find it at the grocery store. I guess I had huts never noticed it before!
I’m going to have to try these for my daughter’s birthday. She can’t have gluten and these would be perfect for her!
Happy Birthday Bakingdom and Congrats to you Darla…you need your own cooking show…Have you ever thought about it…You should!
A cousin
Karen
I am in awe! These are adorable!
I usually dip meringues in hot chocolate to get my chocolate fix, but I love the idea of baking it right in. I’ve had meringues with chopped cocoa nibs mixed right in as well, though I haven’t made them. The chocolate flavor is intense and the crispy flavor even more so. Thanks for the recipe!
YUM!!!
I can’t find any cream of tartar in Portugal… Is there any substitute??
Thanks!!
a lot of craft stores now sell flavoring and extracts in the cake/baking isles. I found a large selections when looking for flavorings for chocolates.
My daughter loves meringues. Totally making these for her with the hidden gems inside! Great idea!
looks beautiful
I have never been a huge fan of meringue, however, the addition of a hidden little chocolate kiss is very enticing! So much so that I could be temped to try this recipe out 🙂
These are so adorable! I’ve made these before but never warmed the egg whites over the double boiler. Gonna try it next!
These are the cutest Valentines-y treat I’ve seen so far. I love the chocolate chips inside! I’ve never had meringues… I should probably fix that. Like right now. Your photos are beautiful!
These are so gorgeous, I have put them on my list to make before Valentines day, so so pretty. x
Oh so pretty and pink. Awesome tutorial 🙂
I just made these with Brach’s stars and almond extract. When they were warm out of the oven…holy yum! Tasted like s’mores. I’m not sure if the ones without the chocolate ended up with the right texture. Any idea what I might’ve done wrong if they ended up chewy? (Or are they supposed to be? I’ve never eaten them before.)
Yum! I love Brach’s stars!!!
It sounds like the meringues without the chocolate were slightly undercooked. The chewiness is caused by moisture that is still left in the meringues. If they were bigger than the ones that I made, they have just needed another 10 or 20 minutes in the oven. The great thng about meringues is that it takes a long time to overcook them, so you can leave them in longer without worrying too much. You just don’t want them to get brown, because then they’re burning.
I hope this is helpful, and I can’t wait to try almond meringues with milk chocolate!!
Actually, after leaving them out for a while to cool, they ended up drying up a bit. So the chewiness is gone. I made a second batch on Sunday too and they came out perfect. I totally want to try another batch where there’s a Teddy Graham under the chocolate. S’more meringues…mmmmm. I might make them for our work potluck on Monday. I love how easy these are to make! Thanks for introducing me to the wonderful world of meringues.
I made “these” today. We didn’t have raspberry extract OR chocolate chips (I know, criminal!) so I just made plain. My son had an asthma attack in the middle of baking so I just turned the oven off and left them in there while we ran to the doctor.
I came home 3 hours later to barely warm pans of delightfully yummy meringue cookies!
So switching the oven off after an hour and leaving them to cool in the oven is an option apparently. 🙂
Thanks so much for inspiring me to try making them!
I linked to you here: http://vandervorts.blogspot.com/2011/02/meringue-cookies.html
This is such a great idea. I’ve made meringue kisses before but I’ve never thought of adding chocolate on the inside!
By the way, I lovelove your website. I’m a fellow follower now 🙂
http://www.atasteofkoko.com
We made these for Valentine’s Day treat bags and they turned out great. (Even with a #22 tip and orange extract, which were the closest I had.) I can picture these green for St. Pat’s, orange for Halloween… They are just too pretty and tasty, too. Thanks for a great idea!
New follower!!
These are ADORABLE! What a clever idea! 🙂
LOVE these! Thank you! I just made these for my daughter’s birthday party tomorrow and they turned out wonderfully. Now the trick will be to make sure they don’t all get eaten before the party…
Hi Darla,
I stumbled upon your blog while looking for meringue recipe and I have to say I am falling in love with your blog! 🙂
I’d love to try this recipe but need to confirm with you about the oven temperature pls.. is it 175F or 175C ?
Thanks 🙂
Hi Angie, Thank you so much! I’m so glad you’ve found me. 🙂 These meringues are baked at 175 degrees F. Hope to see you around here again. 😉
I absolutely ah-dore your posts, and after trying the delicious honey oat bread recipe upon laying eyes on it yesterday, I am going to make these tomorrow! Personally I don’t like meringue, but my friends and I have a little ‘Sisterhood of the Travelling Ice-Cream Tub’ baking thing going on, so I think I’ll have a go, for them. I’m also deciding to go all out with white, milk and dark chocolate, as well as raspberry, strawberry, vanilla and peppermint flavours. >:D I don’t think I’m going to do yours justice, but we’ll take it as it comes. After all, excitement and enthusiasm is one of the best parts of baking! 🙂
Okay, so I’ve spent the most part of my day on making these meringues.. I couldn’t get the stiff peaks to form with the method here, so after having to throw away 8 egg whites and 2 cups sugar’s worth of mixture, I decided to froth up the egg whites separately, then add sugar and cream of tartar, without bothering with heated water, and it worked perfectly! My first two trays are in the oven as I type – yay!
Are you supposed to stir in the extract and food coloring after the stiff peaks form? I did that, and mixture basically turned into pudding and would not form into stiff peaks again. I only added 2 drops of food coloring.
I’m sorry that your meringues didn’t work. 🙁 I haven’t run into that problem myself, but I understand how it can happen. Yes, you stir in the color/flavor after stiff peaks have formed. Try to stir it in gently to prevent deflating the mixture.
Hi Darla, is it 170 degrees celcius or farenheit?
The temperature is fahrenheit. 🙂
I made these yesterday (my first time making meringues! I lived in France for an entire year and never tried one), but I didn’t have raspberry extract, so I used peppermint and made them green (St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner after all). So I’ve never made meringues so I wasn’t really sure how to tell when they’re *done*. But they’re not brown and they’re mostly completely dry, but the tops are a little chewy if you don’t let them melt in your mouth. Hm. I guess I’ll have to make them again and see.
Hi,
New here.
I want to make this for my daughters party, but can i make this ahead of time? And can i freeze them?
I think you could make them up to two days in advance, if you are able to keep them dry. They won’t react well to humidity over time (it will cause them to soften, and even melt if it’s very humid). It’s also not recommended to freeze them. I like to make mine the day before I’ll be serving them, in the evening. I just put them in the oven for almost the entire cook time, then turn the oven off at bed time and leave them in to continue cooking as the oven cools. By the next morning, they’re perfect.
Thanks Darla! Will do that. I’m excited to make this cool meringue kisses for my daughters birthday this coming saturday. Thanks again!
Ms. Darla,
I made some meringue kisses this weekend and instead of adding raspberry extract, I put in a packet of that new Duncan Hines flavor packet for frosting! The orange cream was so yummy!
Made these this morning after holding on to the recipe ALL WEEK! ( i was out of town without a functional oven, so i couldn’t wait to get home to try these)
these were a practice run for my Baby Shower treat bags/ favors. I have always loved when my mom made the meringues when i was a kid but i have never thought of adding flavor to it, and raspberry/ chocolate couldn’t make a pregnant woman any more happier!!!
they’re still in the oven, and I couldn’t get it stiff enough to make very sharp star shapes, but it still came out looking like somewhat-star shaped. ( wilton #22)
cant wait to make these with my daughter for the actual baby shower.
I make a meringue cookie called Forgotten Cookies. You heat the oven while making the cookies. Place the cookies in the hot oven, turn it off and leave them overnight. In the morning they are perfect!
Hi
I found your site over internet surfing for “meringues for birthday” and i am so happy with your nice and prefect recipe.
i have one problem: my oven starts with 125 centigrade(=275 F). In this case how long i must consider for baking meringues?
thank you darla
You can preheat the oven to the lowest temperature, and only bake the meringues for about 1 hour. Turn the oven off, but leave the meringues in the still warm oven until it cools completely.
Could you use superfine sugar and skip the heating step? Just curious.
tried this recipe,pretty cool. I kept raisins and strawberry bits instead of chocolate. What an idea!:-)
cheers!
OMG, This recipe is awesome!! Usually I can never get my egg whites to a stiff consistency, this worked out perfectly! I finally have beautiful shiny little meringues. Thank God for Pinterest. I’ll be following all of your boards!! Can’t wait to try the next recipe!! Thanks!!
Hi … can you use egg whites from a carton instead of trying to separate the eggs yourself? Can’t wait to try these for the first time!
Hi Erica, I’ve never tried using pre-separated egg whites before. I would think that they would work ok, as long as there are no added ingredients. However, I know the the freshest eggs make the best meringues, so you may be better off separating the eggs by hand.
W o o w!! I hope to do this one time!
If I beat the egg whites to stiff peaks then added the sugar over simmering water would this work?
No, the reason you add the sugar before beating to stiff peaks is to melt the sugar. If you add the sugar after achieving stiff peaks, your meringue will be grainy.
I love the recipe and true it. I made a little difference as I didn’t have raspberry extract on hand so I used a raspberry concentrate I made at home. The whole meringue flopped, maybe there was too much moisture in the meringue? I don’t know, but in any case I baked the little things and thy tasted delicious none the less. In the future I will definitely use this recipe, but with the extract next time. Thanks for the recipe! :3
Amazing recipe ! Thank you x
How smart & clever you are! I love this idea and can’t wait to try it. Though I wonder- is there a Print button I’m missing re this recipe? Some of us don’t have a laptop and our PC is not in the kitchen… can you please help? 🙂 Thanks for all the tips!
I make my own raspberry flavored vodka, I think instead of the raspberry flavoring I’m going to try that for an adult cookie. Even if the baking does cook off the alcohol I’d rather be safe then sorry.
CHEERS,
CC