I had some egg whites leftover from making hollandaise for Jonathan’s birthday, and needed a way to use them up.

I remembered that a few years ago (3 to be exact), I made ghost meringue cookies for Halloween. I remember really liking them.

Then, I also remembered that I’d recently seen a recipe for chewy meringues. And chocolate ones at that.

The stars aligned. Sort of.

The challenge is, you see, that where I am right now, there is no electric beater.

“No problem”, I thought. I’ve whipped cream and egg whites by hand before. No big deal.

I was wrong.

Whipping a meringue and whipping cream (or even just egg whites) are very different.

It ended up taking almost an hour of whisk time, some serious sweating, stripping down to nearly topless, and a desperate cry for help.

Even then, I didn’t quite get it to the stiff peak stage. –that’swhatshesaid.

But it didn’t matter.

Because these chocolate chewy meringues still tasted pretty darn delicious.

Thank you Jonathan for being man enough to whisk meringue when your wife’s hand has formed “the claw”, and she just can’t do it anymore!

PS – My hand is still shaking a little bit, which makes typing this up a bit difficult.

Chewy Chocolate Meringue Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Meringues (adapted from Home Baked Comfort, via bakerella)
I only wanted to use up the egg whites I had on hand. So the recipe below reflects that. Also, because I’m in Europe right now, and do not have access to US standard measurements, everything is in metric (but we all know it’s better that way).
100 ml egg whites – for me, this was 3
200 g sugar
12 g natural cocoa powder
50 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line baking sheet with baking paper.
• In a bowl (or saucepan – whatever you have on hand), whisk the egg whites and the sugar together. Set over, but not touching, simmering water in a saucepan.
• Whisk constantly until the sugar dissolves completely and remove from heat. (Put a small dab on your fingertips, and rub them together, to make sure you don’t feel any sugar granules.)
• Beat the eggs on high using your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment – if you are so lucky as to have one. If not, whisk by hand, and you won’t need to go to the gym later. Beat until stiff and glossy.
• Sift cocoa over the meringue. Sprinkle chopped chocolate on top.
• Gently fold together with a spatula until combined.
• Drop even amounts of batter onto prepared baking sheets about two inches apart.
• Bake for about 8-9 minutes. Rotate the pans and bake for another 8-9 minutes until the cookies are fluffy and full of cracks.
• Leaving them on the parchment paper, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. If you can.