Chocolate meringues are light and airy, yet indulgent and chocolatey. Dunk them in dark chocolate for a rich and satisfying, yet low-calorie treat. My recipe walks you through all the steps and includes plenty of tips and tricks for flawless results.
Chocolate Meringue Cookies
Made with simple pantry staples and drenched in smooth dark chocolate for just the right amount of indulgence, chocolate meringues are a treat that’s both simple and exquisite. They’re also irresistible; It’s almost impossible to eat just one!
If you’ve never made meringues before, there’s a bit of technique involved for them come out just right every time. While not terribly difficult, there is a slight learning curve so I’ve included lots of tips and tricks and photos below not to intimidate you, but to educate and hopefully avoid any hiccups and wasted ingredients (you can also check out my basic meringue video, if a tutorial helps!).
Meringues aren’t only tasty, they’re also a good intro for making meringue for other recipes, like angel food cake, Swiss meringue buttercream, or the elusive French macaron.
Get to Know This Recipe
- Texture: Light and airy with a crisp bite. They can become chewy if exposed to moisture, but I include an easy solution for that (read on!).
- Taste: Rich chocolate flavor from the cookies themselves and that gorgeous dark chocolate coating.
- Technique: Not the simplest of cookies, since we are dealing with egg whites here; however, even beginners can be successful if they follow my tips!
- Time: Meringues aren’t quick to make, but they are worth the wait (and they’re much simpler than their fussy cousin, the chocolate macaron)! This recipe takes an hour to bake and then needs to cool for another 1-2 hours. If you want a faster chocolate fix, try my flourless chocolate cookies or double chocolate chip cookies instead!
Ingredients
Chocolate meringues require just seven ingredients. As always, I’ll review a few of the important ones before we get started!
- Egg whites. Separate your own eggs (do NOT use carton egg whites, their success rate is too spotty) and be extremely careful to not get even a drop of yolk into the egg whites. Also, make sure you are adding your egg whites into a clean, dry, grease-free bowl.
- Cocoa powder. I use and recommend natural cocoa powder. While Dutch process cocoa will work here, none of my taste testers preferred the chocolate meringues made with Dutch cocoa to the ones made with natural. Whichever you use, make sure you sift your cocoa powder before adding it. We want a totally smooth batter, but we also don’t want to over-mix by trying to work out any cocoa powder lumps with a spatula.
- Cream of tartar. This stabilizes our egg whites. While cream of tartar is sometimes skipped in meringue, I consider it like “training wheels” for making a successful meringue (and always include it when making macarons), so I recommend it.
- Sugar. Regular granulated sugar works just fine here.
- Chocolate (for dipping!). I recommend semisweet or dark chocolate melting wafers or couverture chocolate (which is what I used today). Chocolate chips will also work, but they don’t melt as nicely, since they are specifically designed to hold their shape, and they’re more likely to streak after the chocolate has cooled.
SAM’S TIP: If you don’t want to waste the spare egg yolks, save them to make lemon bars or lemon crumb bars, banana pudding, a lemon tart, or my german chocolate cake.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Meringues
- Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Do this in a completely grease and moisture free bowl (any bit of moisture or grease can ruin your meringues!). Beat on low speed until combined and foamy.
- Gradually add the sugar! Just add one tablespoon at a time while running your mixer on high speed. Give each tablespoon a bit of time to begin to dissolve before adding more; I usually wait about 15 seconds after each addition.
- Keep beating until you reach stiff peaks. This batter will take at least several minutes to achieve stiff peaks. It will increase in volume and be very thick and glossy when it’s ready. “Stiff peaks” simply means that the peak that forms when you lift the beaters from the mixture holds its shape — it stays stiff and doesn’t fold over or dissolve back in on itself.
SAM’S TIP: Once you hit stiff peaks, stop! Over-mixing the batter is just as bad as not beating it enough and can cause the meringue to break down.
- Fold in the vanilla and cocoa powder. Use a spatula at this point (instead of an electric mixer) and fold gently until completely combined, but don’t over-mix. The batter will deflate slightly during this process, and that’s okay. Portion your batter into a piping bag (if desired, you could just do dollops with a spoon. It’s not as pretty but still works!).
- Pipe or dollop batter onto parchment lined baking sheets. The cookies won’t spread, so make sure you pipe them close together so that you can fit them all on the same tray. Bake for an hour, then turn off the oven. Let the cookies cool completely before dunking in melted chocolate.
SAM’S TIP: If you’ve never melted chocolate before, check out my post on how to melt chocolate chips in the microwave. This will help you avoid some of the common pitfalls that lead to seized (grainy!) chocolate.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are so many factors that can affect meringue and prevent it from reaching stiff peaks. These include humidity (aim for a low humidity day), type of egg whites (never use carton egg whites, they don’t always work!), cleanliness of the bowl and beaters (they must be totally dry and grease-free), cream of tartar (better to not skip it!), and time (it can take a while to reach stiff peaks).
While properly prepared, baked, and stored, chocolate meringues should maintain their crispness. Moisture/humidity does have the potential to make them chewy though.
The good thing is, chewy meringues can be salvaged, as long as you haven’t dipped them in chocolate! because of this, I recommend waiting to dip them until the day you plan on serving them if you are concerned about chewiness.
To make them crispy again, return your meringues to a 225F oven for 10-20 minutes. Allow them to cool in the oven for another hour, and then dip them in chocolate.
Let your chocolate meringues cool completely (and allow the chocolate to completely set after dipping) and then store in an airtight container away from any moisture or heat. They do not need to be refrigerated.
Feel free to get creative with your decoration. You could always sprinkle some crushed peppermint candies over the melted chocolate for a chocolate peppermint twist!
Enjoy!
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Chocolate Meringues
Ingredients
- 4 large egg whites room temperature
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ⅛ teaspoon table salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (35 g) natural cocoa powder sift after measuring
- 1 cup (170 g) semisweet or dark chocolate chips or couverture chocolate (or 6 oz finely chopped chocolate bar)
Recommended Equipment
- Stand mixer or electric mixer
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 225F (105C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a clean, dry large mixing bowl (use the bowl of a stand mixer if you have one), combine the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt and use the whisk attachment of your stand mixer or an electric mixer to stir on medium-low speed until foamy (about 30-60 seconds).4 large egg whites, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar, ⅛ teaspoon table salt
- Increase mixer speed to high and gradually add sugar, about 1 Tablespoon at a time, stirring for about 20 seconds after each addition.1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- Continue to stir on high speed until meringue is thick, shiny, and has increased substantially in volume and you've reached stiff peaks. Sugar should also have dissolved (test this by rubbing a small bit of the mixture between your fingers, if it feels gritty, the sugar isn't dissolved).
- Add vanilla extract and cocoa powder and, using a spatula, gently fold into the meringue until well incorporated and batter is uniform.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ⅓ cup (35 g) natural cocoa powder
- Fit a large disposable piping bag with a large tip (I used an Ateco 846 tip and piped into 1 ½" (4cm) swirls) and transfer meringue into prepared piping bag and pipe onto prepared cookie sheet. The meringue cookies won't spread and so can be piped close together, and you will want to bake all of the cookies at the same time, so make sure you leave enough space.
- Transfer to center rack of 225F (105C) oven and bake for 1 hour, then turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. Leave the oven door closed and allow cookies to cool completely in the oven (1-2 hours) before removing.
- Once cookies have cooled completely, place chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl and melt in 20-second intervals (stirring well in between) until chocolate is completely melted.1 cup (170 g) semisweet or dark chocolate chips or couverture chocolate
- Once chocolate has melted, dip meringues halfway into chocolate, remove, and return to a wax paper lined baking sheet for chocolate to harden before enjoying.
Notes
Storing
Meringue cookies should be crisp and can be stored in an airtight container in a cool dry place (make sure to cool completely before storing). Place parchment or wax paper between layers to prevent sticking. Chocolate meringues may be stored for up to 1 week, but if exposed to heat/humidity or moisture they will lose their crispness.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
I originally published this recipe over on The Recipe Critic in December of 2017. I’ve since updated the photos and post here to include more helpful information and details.
Isabelle Estrella Smith
I love this rescipe you make it sound so simple I will use this for a great get together to show off my culinary skills👩🏽🍳🍪😄
Sam
I hope you love them, Isabelle! 🙂
Chrissy
My 12 year old son and I made these (and your original meringue cookie recipe) and both were superb! We might try almond extract with cocoa next time, to see how we like that addition. We didn’t even dip them in melted chocoloate – just light crispy cocoa meringues. My son really impressed his grandma.
Sam
That is so great to hear! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Chrissy! 🙂
Edith
First time making meringue came out great instructions were easily understandable, made mine light chocolate. They are light and delicious.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Edith! 🙂
Charlotte
This recipe appeared in Bon Appetit several years ago. I would LOVE to find that issue again. It had several winners in it, including this one. Delicious deep chocolate flavor, yet light. Very pretty. I’ve thought of doing them up like Macaroni and filling with ganache.
Sam
Hi Charlotte! I actually developed this one without any input from any another source (well, it’s actually based off of my classic meringue recipe), but I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Charlotte
recipes are like that. 1000 versions of the same thing. most of them almost identical. I’m glad you shared it though because I lost my original recipe.
Anna
I just halved this recipe, they don’t look nearly as pretty as yours, but I snuck one from the oven (they are cooling in the oven rn, and patience is not one of my strengthes 😂) and they are so good! So chocolately and delicious!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Anna! I definitely know the struggle when it comes to not having patience! 🤣
Emmylou
After hearing about the trouble with folding in the cocoa powder, I whisked it together with the sugar and added it one spoon at a time as I whipped the egg whites. I was able to get the batter up to stiff peaks without too much trouble.
The batter deflated a bit afterwards, but the same thing happened with my batch of regular meringues yesterday, I’m going to blame it on the extremely rainy and humid weather we’ve been having recently 😂
Hope this helps!
Sam
Thanks Emmylou! Humidity and rain can definitely do a number on these meringues unfortunately. 🙂
Leilani
Hi. I was wondering if the cocoa can be added to the meringue at the end of the whipping time, so as not to deflate the whites?
Sam
I’m sorry, Leilani, I am not sure I understand. You don’t fold the chocolate in until after the sugar and eggs are whipped together and right before you place it in a piping bag. I don’t recommend doing it before that.
Leilani
I was just wondering if the cocoa could be added while in the final stage of whipping, bypassing the “folding in” stage. I have a hard time keeping the meringue fluffy while folding in the last ingredients.
BTW, I added a tsp. of finely ground espresso powder to make it mocha flavored and the taste was good.
Sam
I’d actually be concerned that that might weigh it down even more than folding it in, but I’d have to try it to make sure. The addition of espresso sounds amazing, definitely going to have to try that!
Lori
I’m making this recipe right now, but when I folded in the cocoa, even though I was very gentle (and anxious!) the eggs deflated completely. What did I do wrong? Is there a sure fire technique for folding into egg whites?
Sam
Hi Lori! A little bit of deflating is likely to occur when stirring in the cocoa powder. Unless the mixture turned into a puddle I’m guessing it was probably just the natural deflation from stirring in the cocoa. Did you still bake the batter? How did it turn out?
Debbie
This was my first time making meringues and they came out great. We liked them so much that this was my daughters request for our cookie exchange. Turned out tasty with and without the extra chocolate dip.
Sam
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed them, Debbie!! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Sharon Schroeter
Hi Sam,
I have made meringues for years & being a chocoholic, I am anxious to try your Chocolate Meringues! Just a word of caution. Oil is also disastrous to meringues. I make meringues for Christmas every year, but oh no!! I was out of peppermint extract. I had some peppermint oil that can be used for cooking…….
Well, I put in a couple of drops. Great taste, but the meringues went flat!
Thanks for your great recipes & keep up the good work!
Sam
Hi Sharon! Ah, yes, sorry to hear about the peppermint oil fiasco! Ugh I’m sure that was frustrating! I am glad you are enjoying the recipes and thank you for your kind comment. Happy New Year!
Ziva
Great recipe. These turned out wonderfully and were very quick and easy. I did make a few changes to suit my personal taste. I also read the article concerning making meringue. I used only 1/2 cup of sugar and increased chocolate chips to 1/2. I baked them at 275 because my oven tends to run hot. I did have to “assist” the cookies off the cookie sheet. I expected this due to the sticky nature of meringue and found that it was no problem, but may try parchment paper next time.
Terry
Hello, SSR ladies! Would you please tell me how BIG to pipe the meringues, in order to achieve the quantity you listed (30) for this recipe?
Unusually, for you, it wasn’t specified this time! I’m sure adding the info would be of benefit to others as well, especially if one needs a specific quantity.
Thanks so much!
Sam
Hi Terry! I actually just made these the other day. They are about 1.5 inches across. I will update the recipe to include that in the near future. 🙂