Chocolate Meringue Cookies

These diminutive chocolate meringue cookies have so much to recommend them that I hardly know where to start. They’re flavorful, flexible, and fabulous. Read on to learn all the reasons why we love them and I think you will, too.

Want to save this recipe?

Enter your email below and I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus get great new recipes every week!

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email *

Save Recipe

Why we love this recipe

Meringue cookies (which I always want to call kisses, for whatever reason) seem like they might be a little bit fancy or hard to make. But I’m here to say that they’re really very straightforward, and the hands-on time is way less than you might think.

All that, and they feel quite special, too.

They’re:

• Crisp, light, and flavorful
• Equal parts elegant and accessible
• Easy to customize with colors and flavors
• Gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, and low-calorie

I first published the Christmas-cookie peppermint version of this recipe here back in 2018. I’ve since updated the post for clarity and given you lots more flavor options to choose from.

What you’ll need

Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.

For the meringue

• You’ll start with room-temperature egg whites. Don’t use them straight out of the fridge, or they won’t whip up as voluminously.
• You’ll use a tiny bit of cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites. This fine white powder is a byproduct of winemaking.
• A little bit of vinegar also helps strengthen the egg white’s proteins. You can use white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or distilled white vinegar.
• Superfine sugar dissolves into the mixture and yields a shinier, smoother final result than regular granulated sugar. If you don’t have any (and I usually don’t), you can blitz granulated sugar in the food processor for 30 seconds or so, until it’s much finer.
• Cornstarch helps absorb any extra moisture and prevent the meringue cookies from weeping. This is especially important if you don’t plan to eat them immediately.
• You’ll use one or more pure extracts to flavor the meringues. For a basic, super-delicious flavor, I call for equal parts vanilla and chocolate extract in the basic recipe. Please refer to the section below for lots more options.
• I do not normally add cocoa powder to these cookies because I love how the bright white meringue contrasts with the colorful stripes. But if you’d like an additional layer of chocolate flavor, you can add two tablespoons of a very good-quality natural cocoa powder along with the sugar, without making any further changes to the recipe.

For the stripes and chocolate dip

• Gel food coloring produces well-behaved, brightly colored stripes and is very easy to work with. You can, of course, use any colors you like.
• Good quality bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips make a quick, easy, dip for the cookies. Thanks to the stabilizers that help chips keep their shape in cookies, they make a dip that sets up nicely on the cookies without a lot of fuss — and still tastes great. I haven’t bothered with tempering in this recipe. If you’d rather start with fancier chocolate and temper it for the perfect snappy, shiny vibe, you can learn how to do it here.

Slightly special equipment

You’ll use a 16-inch (or larger) disposable piping bag and a large star tip. to quickly and easily pipe the cookies onto parchment-lined sheet pans.

How to make it

Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a beautiful batch of chocolate meringue cookies. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. Carefully separate the eggs. Reserve the yolks for another use (suggestions below).
2. Whip the whites to stiff peaks with the cream of tartar and salt, then add the other ingredients as indicated in the recipe card below. The pacing and techniques are easy but important to guarantee great meringues.
3. Paint stripes of gel food coloring on the inside of a large piping bag fitted with a star tip, then add the meringue and pipe straight from the top to make small cookies.
4. Bake low and slow, let cool completely in the oven to prevent cracking, then dip in melted chocolate. That’s it!

Flavor suggestions

Here are more of my favorite ways to flavor chocolate-dipped meringue cookies. You can have fun coordinating the stripe color with your flavors if you like.

• Chocolate-peppermint (great for the holidays, and pictured below): 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• Chocolate-orange: 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• Chocolate-almond: 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• Mocha: 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/2 teaspoon coffee extract
• Vanilla: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Lemon: 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• Lemon-vanilla: 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract + 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Spiced: Up to one teaspoon total of ground spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom (try a 2:1:1 ratio), or ground chili.

Expert tips and FAQs

More favorite cookie recipes

• Quaker oatmeal raisin cookies
• Chewy snickerdoodles
• Peppermint oreo truffles

5 from 7 votes

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

By Carolyn Gratzer Cope

These diminutive chocolate meringue cookies have so much to recommend them that I hardly know where to start. They're flavorful, flexible, and fabulous. Read on to learn all the reasons why we love them and I think you will, too.

Prep: 45 minutes mins

Cook: 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Additional Time: 1 hour hr

Total: 4 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Servings: 60 small cookies

SaveSaved Pin Recipe Comment Print Recipe

Want to save this recipe?

Enter your email and I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus get great new recipes every week!

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email *

Save Recipe

Equipment

• Kootek 100 Pack 16 Inch Extra Thick Pastry Bags Large Disposable Icing Decorating Bags Cake Piping Bags with 5 Bag Ties for all Sized Tips Kit and Couplers Baking Cupcakes Cookies Candy Supplies Tool
• Ateco # 828 – Open Star Pastry Tip .63” Opening Diameter- Stainless Steel

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

For the meringue

• ▢ 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• ▢ ? teaspoon cream of tartar
• ▢ ? teaspoon fine sea salt
• ▢ 1 cup (210 grams) superfine sugar
• ▢ 2 teaspoons 7 grams) cornstarch
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (5 ml) white wine vinegar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon chocolate extract

For the stripes and chocolate dip

• ▢ Gel food color
• ▢ 6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet chocolate chips

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions 

Make the meringues

• Preheat oven to 200°F with two racks close to the center.
• Line two rimmed half-sheet pans with parchment.
• Place the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk, or into a large bowl if using electric beaters. Whip on medium-high for about three minutes, until stiff peaks form. (If you lift the beaters or a spoon out of the egg whites, the tips of the peaks that form should stand up without falling over.)
• With the mixer running, add sugar a tablespoon at a time.
• Turn machine up to high and beat for five minutes, until you have a big, glossy bowl of what looks like marshmallow fluff.
• Sprinkle in cornstarch, vinegar, and vanilla, and fold in gently but thoroughly with a spatula.
• Fit a large piping bag with a star tip. Using a skewer or a small paintbrush, paint several thin lines of gel food dye onto the inside of the piping bag, starting from the tip and going about halfway up the bag. You don’t really have to do a good job of this at all for the effect to work, so don’t stress about it. 
• Use the rubber spatula to transfer meringue from bowl into piping bag and twist the top to close.
• Pipe bite-sized meringues (about an inch and a half in diameter) onto parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving an inch or so of space between them.
• Bake until dry and crisp all the way through, about two and a half hours.
• Turn off the oven and let cookies cool completely in the oven to prevent cracking. You can prop the door ajar with a wooden spoon to speed this process if you like.

Dip the cookies in chocolate

• When meringues are ready, melt chocolate chips. You can do this in a double-boiler or in the microwave in short bursts, stirring in between, until just melted.
• Dip the bottom of each cookie into the chocolate and set back on parchment until dry.

Notes

1. You'll start with room-temperature egg whites. Don't use them straight out of the fridge, or they won't whip up as voluminously.
2. You'll use a tiny bit of cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites. This fine white powder is a byproduct of winemaking.
3. Superfine sugar dissolves into the mixture and yields a shinier, smoother final result than regular granulated sugar. If you don't have any (and I usually don't), you can blitz granulated sugar in the food processor for 30 seconds or so, until it's much finer.
4. A little bit of vinegar also helps strengthen the egg white's proteins. You can use white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or distilled white vinegar.
5. Cornstarch helps absorb any extra moisture and prevent the meringue cookies from weeping. This is especially important if you don't plan to eat them immediately.
6. You'll use one or more pure extracts to flavor the meringues. For a basic, super-delicious flavor, I call for equal parts vanilla and chocolate extract in the basic recipe. Please refer to the section below for lots more options.
7. Gel food coloring produces well-behaved, brightly colored stripes and is very easy to work with. You can, of course, use any colors you like.
8. Good quality bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips make a quick, easy, dip for the cookies. Thanks to the stabilizers that help chips keep their shape in cookies, they make a dip that sets up nicely on the cookies without a lot of fuss — and still tastes great. I haven't bothered with tempering in this recipe. If you'd rather start with fancier chocolate and temper it for the perfect snappy, shiny vibe, you can learn how to do it here.
9. I do not normally add cocoa powder to these cookies because I love how the bright white meringue contrasts with the colorful stripes. But if you'd like an additional layer of chocolate flavor, you can add two tablespoons of a very good-quality natural cocoa powder along with the sugar, without making any further changes to the recipe.
10. Once completely dry, cooled, and set, chocolate-dipped meringue cookies keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks — think mason jars and cellophane bags — so they also make great little gifts.

Flavor suggestions

Here are more of my favorite ways to flavor chocolate-dipped meringue cookies. You can have fun coordinating the stripe color with your flavors if you like.

• Chocolate-peppermint (great for the holidays, and pictured below): 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• Chocolate-orange: 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• Chocolate-almond: 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• Mocha: 1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract + 1/2 teaspoon coffee extract
• Vanilla: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Lemon: 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• Lemon-vanilla: 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract + 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Spiced: Up to one teaspoon total of ground spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom (try a 2:1:1 ratio), or ground chili.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 60kcal, Carbohydrates: 4.7g, Protein: 0.5g, Fat: 1.2g, Fiber: 0.3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Cookies + Bars

Cuisine: American

Tried this recipe?Mention @umamigirl or tag #umamigirl!