Something a little different for Easter. These meringue cookies are wonderfully easy to prepare and a great way to use up leftover egg whites from your Easter Lemon Tart. They make delicious gifts and a very sweet ending to an Easter Feast. The texture of these meringue treats is very seductive – wisps of meringue dissolve as you bite into soft chocolate and crunchy nuts. Below I share two of my favourite versions: White Chocolate and Pine Nut , and Chocolate Orange and Pecan Nut.  The white chocolate in the first recipe takes on a tantalizingly caramel flavour, reminiscent of Dulce Du Leche, and the chocolate orange zings with flavour. The most exciting thing for any imaginative cook is that these meringues lend themselves to experimentation – different chocolates and nuts, dried fruits such as cranberries and candied peel. Or experiment with the original Ukrainian/Russian noodle version (see below).

 

I was first introduced to these  meringues by Orlando Murrin who demonstrated at Stirring Stuff as part of the Henley Literary Festival; He called them ‘Forgotten Cookies’, because if you leave in them in the cooling oven overnight they are indeed too easy to forget about!  Intrigued to know more about the recipes origins I undertook a little research, finding similar recipes that incorporated biscuit or cake crumbs into the mix instead of chocolate, but nothing that indicated where they might have originated from.  Quite by chance, as is often the way, when I was browsing a bookshop cookery section for new books and Christmas gifts, where I happed across a delightful Ukrainian Cookery Book ‘MAMYLLLKA by Olia Hercules. Flicking through its pages, and  already alert, because this is just the sort of book to excite me, I was delighted to find a recipe for Nutty Noodle Meringue which looked very similar to the cookies that Orlando had made but without the chocolate; In Olia’s recipe egg yolks are made into a stiff paste for baked noodles which are then incorporated along with chopped nuts into the meringue . The biscuit and cake crumb variations  were indeed a way to use up left over egg whites and cake crumbs. The translation for the dessert  Olia indicates, was originally Russian giving us a clue to their origin.

 

   White Chocolate and Pine Nut Cookies

Ingredients

Makes approximately 24 bite sized cookies

2 large egg whites

1 good pinch/ 1/8th tsp, flaked sea salt

120g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon grated Tonka bean

120g  Pine nuts

150g good quality white chocolate roughly chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan 160C/gas 5 and line 1 large or two flat baking sheets with foil, dull side upwards.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until they foam and then add the salt. continue whisking to the soft peak stage (until the foam is just beginning to hold its shape). Add the sugar in three or four additions beating well between each until you have a thick and glossy meringue.

Sprinkle over the vanilla essence or grated Tonka bean and all of the chopped nuts and chocolate. Gently fold these into the meringue with a large metal spoon.

Use two teaspoons to shape small bite sized meringues neatly onto the lined baking sheet.  Put then into the hot oven and then turn the oven off. Leave the cookies for at least 3 hours until the oven is cold before removing the cookies to cool completely. You can make them in the evening and leave them overnight in the oven.

Carefully peel the cookies from the foil and once cooled store in an airtight tin. They will keep for about a week.

Chocolate Orange Pecan cookies

Ingredients

2 large egg whites

1 good pinch/ 1/8th tsp, flaked sea salt

120g caster sugar

1/2p vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cocoa powder, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest powder *

120g  pecan nuts roughly chopped

150g dark 70% plus chocolate roughly chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan 160C/gas 5 and line 1 large or two flat baking sheets with foil, dull side upwards.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until they foam and then add the salt. continue whisking to the soft peak stage (until the foam is just beginning to hold its shape). Add the sugar in three or four additions beating well between each until you have a thick and glossy meringue.

Sift the cocoa powder over the meringue, add the orange powder, vanilla essence and all of the chopped nuts and chocolate. Gently fold these into the meringue with a large metal spoon.

Use two teaspoons to shape small bite sized meringues neatly onto the lined baking sheet.  Put then into the hot oven and then turn the oven off. Leave the cookies for at least 3 hours until the oven is cold before removing the cookies to cool completely. You can make them in the evening and leave them overnight in the oven.

Carefully peel the cookies from the foil and once cooled store in an airtight tin. They will keep for about a week.

* powdered orange zest can be bought on-line from Spice Mountain. You can make your own by removing the zest from several oranges with a potatoes peeler. Remove all of the white pith and lay the zest strips on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 180c/gas 5 and then remove and cool in a dry place. Once the peel is cooled and completely dry store in an airtight jar. Simply pound a few strips in a pestle and mortar as required.

Happy Easter 2018