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tender orange, pistachio and chocolate meringue cookies, forget-me-nots

FORGET ME NOT MERINGUE COOKIES

Fluffy little clouds filled with nuts, chocolate, or whatever strikes your fancy. Surprisingly elegant and deceptively easy to whip up.
Course Baking
Prep Time 15 minutes
Servings 30

Ingredients

  • 2 egg whites
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp (120 g) granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup (approx 120 g) chopped toasted walnuts
  • 5 oz (150 g) dark or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla
  • 5-6 dashes of walnut or old fashioned bitters (only if using walnuts in the recipe)

Orange Pistachio and Chocolate Version

  • 3/4 cup pistachios slivered if possible, or else chopped, with skins removed to reveal the green nut. These days many specialty nut and dried fruit shops carry slivered green pistachios.
  • 5 oz (150 g) dark or bittersweet chocolate , chopped
  • 1 tbsp orange zest, divided 2 medium oranges
  • 1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C) It must be thoroughly heated through.
  2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper

  3. Whisk egg whites with pinch of salt until stiff and dry. The liquidy chear egg white texture should be replaced with a foamy texture. Gradually add the sugar, whisking until a thick and glossy meringue is achieved.

  4. Gently fold in the nuts, chocolate, vanilla and bitters.
  5. Using a teaspoon, drop heaping spoonfuls (but don't go any larger) onto the parchment, spaced 1" apart.
  6. Put the baking sheets into the oven. Shut the door. Immediately turn the oven off.
  7. Leave these alone without opening the door overnight. In the morning, they will easily come off the parchment paper. They will keep in an airtight container for a week. But who are we kidding, they'll be gone before you know it!

Orange Pistachio and Chocolate Version

  1. Zest the oranges and place the zest in a small bowl. Add the cardamom and stir together till blended evenly.  

  2. When the meringue is ready, gently fold in most of the orange zest with the pistachios and chocolate.  Save a bit of the zest to sprinkle over all the cookies before they go into the oven.

    Proceed to place spoonfuls onto the baking sheets

Recipe Notes

If you are baking these on a humid day, you may find that the meringue doesn't come together, or that they don't completely cook through, and the insides are still sticky.

If this is the case, thoroughly warm the oven again at 350F, and put the cookies back in, and turn off the oven again. Check after 4 hours.

You could also use chopped dried cranberries or cherries, chopped dried apricots (as long as they are 'fresh' dried), candied ginger, dried apple or pear pieces. Hmmm, fresh chopped thyme and apple would be lovely!

If you opt to use pistachios or almonds etc, then omit the bitters from the above recipe.