Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day! I am taking today off of the Halloween theme to celebrate one of my favorite holidays!
These chocolate dipped meringue cupcakes were absolutely heavenly! I don’t have a lot of meringue-making experience and I’m thrilled to tell you that none is necessary.
Keys to Success: 1) The goal of heating the meringue is to dissolve the sugar – not actually ‘cook’ the whites. In fact – you want to be sure that you only heat the meringue to the point where it is hot to the touch – no further. Otherwise you’ll have cooked the eggs and ruined the meringue. 2) Let the chocolate cool (about 15 minutes) before you use it to glaze the meringue so that you don’t melt the meringue. 3) The original directions said to ladle the chocolate glaze over the frozen meringues but that ended up a mess with glaze all over the liners and surface. I found it much easier to tip the pan with the glaze to one side and then gently dip and roll the cupcake in it (meringue only). 4) Keep refrigerated until you are ready to serve them. The meringue tastes better and won’t lose it shape.
Last note: I used a 3/8″ round tip with a disposable pastry bag (all purchased cheaply from a craft store – go to their website for 40% off coupons) but you can easily fill a Ziploc storage bag with the meringue and clip off one corner and build your meringue frosting tops that way. There’s no right or wrong shape – you just want to get some height to them (they are also called high tops cupcakes).
Makes 12
12 chocolate cupcakes, baked and ready to frost
8 egg whites, room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tarter
3 cups semi-sweet or dark chocolate
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Prepare Meringue:
Whisk egg whites, sugar and cream of tarter in a bowl placed over a pot of simmering hot water (a double boiler). Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and the mixture it hot to the touch. You don’t want it any hotter than that or else you will cook the eggs. This process will take about 5 minutes.
Transfer to bowl of an electric mixture and beat on high until mixture has completely cooled and meringue is completely set (firm and has stiff peaks when you lift the beaters).
Transfer meringue to pastry bag with a 3/8″ tip or a Ziploc bag and then cut off a 3/8″ opening in one corner. Pipe from sides of cupcakes up towards center, mounding it (wider at bottom, narrowing as you pipe up). Freeze meringue topped cupcakes at least for 1 hour.
Prepare Chocolate Glaze:
Temper or melt chocolate and oil in bowl place over a pot of simmering water (double boiler) until melted. Stir until well blended and the mixture is smooth. Cool.
Assemble:
Holding a cupcake in one hand, with the other hand tip the pot with the chocolate glaze to one side so that the glaze pools. Dip the meringue portion of the cupcake in the glaze and turn to fully coat. The chocolate will harden/set almost immediately so you’ll want to do this step fairly quickly. Set cupcake aside and repeat with remaining.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
thanks to: http://blog.divaentertains.com/2011/08/chocolate-meringue-cupcakes/
