These little bad boys are moorish, quick and easy to make, not many ingredients, not much washing up and will impress your family and friends. You will be eating these yummy delights within 30 minutes. You have about a dozen to enjoy and the recipe is easy to double if you want more. These are gluten free, and you can make them dairy free buy just using dairy free chocolate instead of regular chocolate.
If you don't need these detailed instructions and are ready to cook
then scroll down to the bottom of the page for just the recipe.
1) Now firstly get 1 egg out of the fridge now- Now you are going to use the white of the egg so you are also going to need two bowls. Crack the egg and over one of the bowls carefully separate the shell into two halves, 1 in each hand. Gently tip the egg yolk from one shell into the other all the time letting the egg white fall into the bowl. When most of the egg white is removed, tip the egg yolk into the other bowl and place your empty shell into the bin. Now with the bowl with the egg yolk in it, grab a fork and give it a quick whisk. Now grab some glad wrap and cover the bowl with the egg yolk in it into the fridge. Make a note of the date and you can leave this in the fridge for up to 3 days. Add another egg and use it to make scrambled egg on toast one morning.The bowl with the egg white in it needs to remain on the kitchen bench. Don't put this bowl in the fridge - we need these to be room temperature.
2) Turn your oven on 130C/392F with a fan or 150C/425F without a fan.
Make sure you have your oven rack in the centre of the oven and remove any baking trays.
3) Time to clear the decks and feed the pet – you can’t begin until you have your house in order. What I mean by that is I have found I always make mistakes when I get distracted or work in a mess. Ok so maybe this easy recipe won’t be a game changer but as you start to build on your cooking skills, getting your house in order is so important to successful and happy baking.
· feed the pets
· make a cuppa
· empty the dishwasher (or load it if you couldn’t be bothered the night before)
· if you have little ones, change their nappy and feed them
· check your mobile and emails if you need to
· make room on your kitchen bench – I learnt the hard way by losing a cake over the edge :( all because I refused to move the fruit bowl
· wipe down the kitchen bench
· place current dishcloth and tea towel in laundry and grab a fresh set
· wash your hands
4) Now - Grab all your ingredients and place them on the kitchen bench –
· caster sugar
· desiccated coconut
· dark chocolate melts
· and your egg white that is slowly coming to room temperature
5) Now grab all your equipment out - you are going to need
. a medium sized bowl
. 2 cups - tea cup size not coffee mugs or a set of measuring cups if you have these
. an electric mixer with beaters
. a spatula
. a baking tray
. baking paper
. paper towels
. a dessertspoon
. a teaspoon
. a microwave proof jug or small bowl
. a cooling rack (optional)
6) Ok so lets get going
. firstly grab your baking paper and tear off enough to cover your baking tray. Then go ahead and place this baking paper on your oven tray.
. Take one of your cups and fill it to the top with your coconut.
. Take the second cup and fill it a quarter full with the castor sugar.
. Tear off a 10' slice of baking paper. Then take your chocolate and measure out by eye 140g of it. Now if you have a bag of dark chocolate melts look at the weight on the front of the packet and guesstimate 140g or if you have a block just break off until you have 140g.
So you are going to place all this chocolate on the baking paper and then eyeball half of it. To one side you will have half the chocolate and to the other side you will have the other. With one half of the chocolate you need to break this up into smaller pieces so go ahead and do that now. Not to small pieces but like small chunks - so if you have melts, break one of these into 4 or 5 pieces. The other half of the chocolate leave whole as this is going to be melted later in the microwave.
. put your baking paper, coconut, castor sugar and any unused chocolate away.
. Take your bowl with the egg white in it and pour this into your medium sized mixing bowl. Place this used bowl in the sink. Now take your electric mixer and plug it in. Start beating your egg whites for 2 minutes or until stiff peaks on the egg whites form. Now take your caster sugar and place half of it into the stiff egg whites and beat for another minute, then add the final half of the castor sugar and beat again for another minute.
. Stop your mixer and eject the beaters into the sink. Pop your electric mixer away.
. Take your spatula and stir around the edges of the egg white and sugar mixture. Take your coconut and pour that into the mix. Place that cup into the sink.
. Now take your chocolate bits - the ones that you broke up with your fingers and place those in the mixture. Now gently fold the mixture until the coconut and chocolate are mixed in. Don't stir too heavily as you don't want your meringue to collapse.
. ok now take your dessertspoon and have your baking tray ready.
Scoop up a spoon of this mixture and place it on the tray. You will get bits of mixture falling off so you just need to squash these together as best you can.
Bake in oven for about 35 mins but i want you to set your alarm for 15mins, where you will rotate the tray around. Then set your alarm for 10 minutes and check again. Keep going for every 10 minutes until you see that the surfaces are starting to turn a pale golden brown. Then set your alarm for 5 more minutes to finish off. Remove from oven and let cool a bit before placing them on a cooling rack. and putting your baking tray away. Don't forget to turn off your oven.
7) Chocolate Dripping
. Take your chocolate off the baking paper and place it into your microwave proof jug. Microwave this chocolate for 30 second intervals stirring for at least a minute with your teaspoon.
. Place the baking paper that you just removed the chocolate from under the cooling rack to catch the excess chocolate when you drizzle.
. Now when your chocolate is all melted, take some chocolate with your teaspoon and just drizzle the chocolate over the top of the coconut and chocolate meringues.
8) Eat and Enjoy - Well done – you CAN cook…
NOTES
Simple Ingredient Changes to Suit Your Dietary Requirements
Gluten free – this recipe is gluten free.
Dairy free - replace the chocolate with dairy free chocolate
Storage Requirements
Best kept in a sealed container for 5 days.
CHOCOLATE & COCONUT MERINGUES RECIPE
Prep time- 15 mins Cooking time – 15 - 35 mins Makes - 14 approx
Ingredients
· 1/4 cup caster sugar
. 1 cup dessicated coconut
. 150g dark chocolate melts
. 1 large egg white
Method
. Preheat oven to 130C / 392 F
. Beat egg white in a medium sized mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Beat in half the sugar until firm and then other half. Keep beating until firm and glossy.
. Roughly chop half the chocolate and fold this half into the meringue as well as the coconut.
. Scoop out heaped teaspoons of mixture and place on prepared baking tray.
. Bake until a pale golden brown for 15 - 35mins (large baking time variance due to cup measurements being subjective).
. Cool on tray.
. Melt remaining chocolate and drizzle over meringues.