Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

How to keep meringue cookies crisp? ›

Meringue is sensitive to humidity, so if you want to keep it crisp on the outside, you need to store it in an airtight container. You can keep it in the fridge or freezer, as long as it is well sealed. If you bake it on a humid day, you should move it to the container as soon as it has cooled.

While low heat will dry them out, meringues do not become hard and crisp until they have had a chance to cool for five or ten minutes. 1. Sift 2 tablespoons granulated sugar with confectioners' sugar; set aside.

Cream of tartar: Cream of tartar is acidic, and it works to add better stabilization to meringue. The acid can be substituted for lemon juice or vinegar.

Add cornstarch to the meringue to stabilize it.

Cornstarch helps the meringue keep its shape, making it a good ingredient addition if you're worried about your meringue weeping. Add about 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of cornstarch into the meringue as you're whipping it so it will absorb some of the extra moisture.

Surprisingly, fat is the enemy of a good meringue. Think about it this way: Egg yolks are what you use when you want a dense, luscious dessert like mousse or chocolate pudding. Egg whites provide the lightest, airiest texture you can imagine.

As it draws in moisture, the meringues become sticky and soft instead of dry and crisp. If they're not eaten immediately, before the humidity can get to them, it's basically a disaster.

Meringue cookies, or forgotten cookies, are bite-sized, lighter-than-air cookies made from whipped egg whites and sugar. They bake at a low temperature for an extended time until they are crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside.

Ingredients for meringue

Sugar – Can't have a meringue without the sweetness of sugar! Cream of tartar – Meringue's secret ingredient! It creates a strong, stable meringue.

Why do you put vinegar in meringue? ›

Acid. Whether it be vinegar, lemon juice, cream of tartar, or a combination, an acid will greatly improve the structure of meringue. Acid not only helps meringue whip up and aerate more quickly, it also keeps it stable. Without acid, meringue is more likely to collapse either during or after mixing.

Cornstarch: Cornstarch is an excellent way to foolproof your meringue. Use it to create added fluff and keep your hard-won volume from shrinking. Cream of Tartar: Often added in when making meringues, acidic cream of tartar provides lift and stabilization.

The bottom line: For smooth, stiff beaten egg whites that keep their shape, don't skip the cream of tartar. If you don't have cream of tartar, substituting 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar per egg white works almost as well. To avoid meringues that weep, don't skip the cream of tartar...

Over whip the egg whites and you risk making them too firm and they will risk losing the moisture that they hold. This will affect your meringue's crispness, as well as making it more likely to collapse or weep beads of sugar. As my meringue guru Gary Mehigan advises: “If you over whip the egg whites you cannot fix it.

To avoid cracks and unnecessary browning in your baked meringues, be sure that your oven is fully warmed, but not actually too hot before baking the meringue — it's best to use an oven thermometer to check the temperature. If possible, also try to avoid baking meringues on humid or rainy days.

The trick is to store the baked, cooled meringues in the freezer, where the dry, cold air prevents them from attracting moisture and losing their crispness.

How do you store cookies to stay crisp? To keep crispy cookies crisp, you need to keep them away from moisture. Always store different types of cookies separately—soft cookies can cause crispy cookies to soften due to their extra moisture. Place crispy cookies in an airtight container, but don't completely seal it.

Make sure that you are turning down the oven temperature immediately after putting the meringue in the oven. If you have a top element in your oven it may be worth seeing if this can be turned off or put the meringue on a lower shelf, as direct radiant heat from a top element could be causing the darker colour.