Taste and Create: Orange Chocolate Meringues

I enjoyed taking part in Taste and Create so much last month that I just had to sign up again. This month I got partnered with Erin from The Skinny Gourmet which was really exciting because this girl has some fabulous recipes!!! However with a husband like mine I become somewhat limited in what I can make. I did find a great recipe that I knew that both of us would love - orange chocolate meringues.

I picked this recipe for several reasons -
1. Like I said I knew both of us would love this - especially Rob seeing as he likes to eat meringues like apples.
2. I needed some practice making meringues, seeing as it's something I've not been very good at in the past.
3. I was very fortunate to receive some Amano Chocolate from a Blakemakes.com giveaway and needed a fab recipe to use some of it in.


4. I remember talking to a meringue producer at Enjoy the Taste of Scotland who said they had tried to make meringue with chocolate through it but couldn't figure it out, which really surprised me because I've seen all sorts of meringue recipes with chocolate in it.

So with so many reasons and motives to make this what was I waiting for!?!?!?! Well some spare time to make them I suppose, which happened to be today!

I made a mistake on my first go at this recipe and only added half the sugar so the meringues ended up being quite soft - but still really yummy. I ended up baking it for much longer than the second batch hoping that they may have crisped up which is part of why they're a bit darker looking than the second batch.



I got it right the second time round and was even more impressed. The meringue came out perfectly - beautifully crispy inside and out and filled with fabulous orange and chocolate flavour that makes them so yummy on their own that you wouldn't want to eat them with anything else, but I'm sure they would still be delicious with other things like a little cream and mandarin segments... oh and now that I'm daydreaming throw on some chocolate sauce too!!!!



I'm sure I'll be using this recipe again even just the basic meringue part of it, because it worked so well.

Orange Chocolate Meringues

Erin was able to make 10 servings but I made 6 bigger portions.

Ingredients
2 large egg whites @ room temperature
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp pure orange extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
1/2 cup Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chips, finely chopped. I used 70% Amano Chocolate

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F (170˚C)
2. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff white peaks form.
3. Beat in the sugar adding it very gradually. Midway through adding sugar add the extracts (DON'T add more that 1 tsp worth of extract).
4. Fold the chopped chocolate into the meringue.
5. Drop required portion size onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
6. Bake at 350˚F (170˚C) until crisp (mine took about 30-40 minutes). Cool on a wire rack and store in an air tight container.

See Erin's post for more details and edits that can be made.



As for the Amano Chocolate, I had to taste a piece of each before doing anything else with it. This was some really tasty chocolate, really smooth, with great flavours that wasn't as bitter as other dark chocolates (of 70%) I've had before. I could have easily ate my way through these bars of chocolate as they were. Thanks Amano Chocolate and thanks Blakemakes.com for the free chocolate! I loved it!