These meringues which are swirled with gluten free cocoa and made with organic coconut palm sugar are sublime! They are rich, caramelly, chocolatey and chewy! What more do you want from a meringue?
In the windows of patisseries in France you see huge meringues piled up for sale, often swirled with cocoa, or topped with almonds or marbled with pink fruit puree. People buy them to eat just as they are or to eat with whipped cream and fruit. They look amazing and taste amazing but are stacked full of white refined sugar.
I wanted to re-create meringues that not only tasted like these french delicacies but also looked like them too but obviously were not made using white refined sugar. Unfortunately, making meringues using sweeteners/sugar substitutes is near impossible as meringue needs sugar to hold it’s structure. Believe me, I’ve tried numerous meringue recipes using sweeteners but as yet I haven’t had any successes. Either they don’t hold, they don’t keep or they are too saccharine sweet. These on the other hand are perfect! The strong caramel flavor from the coconut palm sugar blends very well with the dark cocoa and makes a very decadent desert.
I like my meringues to be slightly chewy in the center (unlike the ones that you get in the french patisseries which are very light airy and dry) and these were just the right consistency – crisp on the outside with a little chewiness in the middle. If you like your meringues a bit more dry then just leave them in the oven for longer – they will dry out.
As for how to eat them and how to store them – my niece ate her meringue like a cookie whilst the rest of us ate devoured ours with whipped double cream and strawberries – yum! You could store these meringues for a week or so in an air tight container but beware, meringue can be temperamental and will sweat if refrigerated and will go all floppy in humid conditions!
I hope you enjoy!
Cocoa Swirl Meringues
- Prep Time: 30m
- Cook Time: 3h
- Total Time: 3h 30m
- Yield: 10 medium sized meringues
- Category: Refined Sugar Free
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200g) Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) Maple Sugar
- 5 Egg whites
- 20 grams Dark Cocoa Powder (Gluten Free)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400f/200c
- Place the palm sugar and maple sugar into a grinder and grind until the sugar resembles powdered sugar. It doesn't matter if there are some bits of sugar that are still granular but you want the majority of it to be powder like.
- Cover a baking tray with parchment paper and spread the sugar on this. Place in the oven and cook until the sugar just starts to melt around the edges of the tray.
- Make sure your mixing bowl and whisk are clean - any trace of oil or fat will ruin meringue. You may want to rub the inside of the mixing bowl with lemon juice to help with this.
- Crack the eggs and separate the egg white from the egg yolks, placing the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer. Take great care not to get any egg yolk into the egg white as even a little bit will ruin your meringues.
- Start to whisk the egg until it is slightly frothy. When the sugar has started to melt at the edges of the tray take it out of the oven and slowly pour the hot sugar into the frothy eggs, whisking on a medium speed. The easiest way of doing this is to carefully pick up the parchment paper and make a chute from the paper to pour the sugar into the egg mix.
- Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled and it holds its shape. Whilst the mixture is whisking turn the oven down to 225f/105c
- Once your meringue mixture is glossy, cold and holds it shape, stop your mixer and pour the cocoa powder on the top of your meringue mixture. Using a spatula fold the cocoa into the mixture once or twice. You DO NOT want to mix the cocoa into the meringue mixture, you just want to 'swirl' it into the mixture!
- Using a spoon (or a couple of spoons if you find this easier) drop mounds of the mixture onto baking trays lined with parchment paper.
- Place in the oven for a couple of hours. Check on your meringues after 2 hours. You want them to be crisp on the outside and to sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. If they are not leave them for a little longer. If you make bigger meringues then they will need longer. Switch off the oven, wedge the oven door open a little bit with a tea towel and leave them to cool in the oven for an hour or so. Take out and store in an air tight tin.
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