Meringue Kisses with Roasted Cocoa Nibs

Emily from Chocolate in Context is hosting this month's Sugar High Friday and asked us to make something using unrefined cocoa products, in other words Raw Chocolate.

The choice of product was easy - I still had leftover roasted cocoa nibs from Tava...



Deciding what to do with them was the hard part.

Many wild and wonderful ideas swirled through my head but a conjunction of events lead to me needing to find a simpler solution. And it came to me in the form of a kiss - Meringue Kisses speckled with roasted cocoa nibs.

Meringue Kisses with Roasted Cocoa Nibs

[Makes about 80]

75 grams egg whites (2 extra large eggs)

150 grams caster sugar

2 tablespoons Roasted Cocoa Nibs

A quick note - the rule of thumb is to use twice as much sugar as egg whites. I weighed the whites and they came to 75 grams.

Whisk up the egg whites and when fluffy begin adding the sugar a spoonful at a time. Ensure the sugar is absorbed before adding the next spoonful. This is a slow process but essential for a good result.

Once you've used all the sugar, sprinkle in the roasted cocoa nibs and beat briefly to incorporate.

Use a piping bag with a wide plain nozzle to pipe out the kisses on lined oven trays - I made these quite small and managed to get about 80 from the mixture.

Cook in preheated 150°C/300°F oven until set - the time needed will depend on the size you make. These took around 15 minutes. Let them cool on the oven trays before removing.



The initial crunch of the meringue matches well with the crunchy nib and as you chew, it releases that chocolate flavour which melds into the marshmallowy core of each kiss.