Chocolate Marshmallow Meringues

If you are after an elegant after dinner treat, you will enjoy these Chocolate Marshmallow Meringues. They have a crisp and crumbly outer shell, and a rich, dense, marshmallow centre. Made with good quality Dutch Cocoa and rich dark chocolate, they have a wonderful chocolate flavour and are very light.

Ingredients:

· 3 large egg whites

· ¼ tsp. cream of tartar

· 1/8 tsp. salt

· 2/3 cup sugar

· 3 tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder

· 1 tsp. cornflour

· ¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

· 60g (2 oz) dark chocolate, very finely chopped

Method:

Preheat your oven to 140 degrees C (280 deg F). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.

Add egg whites, cream of tartar and salt to a medium sized bowl and beat on medium speed until foamy, about 25 seconds. While beating, gradually add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. This will take a minute or two of beating. Increase speed to medium-high and continue to beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. The egg whites will be white, thick and foamy.

Sift in cocoa and cornflour and beat on low speed until combined. Beat in vanilla. Fold in chocolate.

Pipe 5 cm (2 inch) wide rounds onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely before removing from tray.

We baked the Chocolate Marshmallow Meringues to take to a dinner party as a little thank you gift.

We packaged them into a Muffin/Cupcake sized box. The meringues were wrapped in some printed waxed paper and sealed with a pretty sticker. We added a few chocolates to the top of the box.