Valentine's Day Love Drops

Who doesn't love a good Valentine's Day Treat. Whether you are taken or flying solo the treats are really where it's at. This time I chose to go outside the box and make something that seems to amaze but is actually really simple.

I decided to make meringue "cookies" for this year's celebration. Meringue may seem intimidating but trust me it is a lot easier than you think. Especially if you utilize a couple tricks to help ensure it comes out great every time.

You will need half of a lemon,10x13 parchment paper lined baking sheet, 3 egg whites , 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar, a pinch of salt, 3/4c of sugar, 2 tbsp of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 vanilla bean (trust me its magical) I also have really good chocolate for melting like Scharffen Berger and 1/4 c of dutch process cocoa powder to personalize it up a bit. A few bowls. Two larger for the meringue making one for the chocolate and two for separating the eggs.

Please note since I also have my birthday twin's b-day coming up (technically birthday triplet if we really want to get into it {that's a small nod to my sister's honey}) I doubled the recipe. My friend has some dietary restrictions that this recipe works well with so this will be part of her present.

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.

Split the vanilla bean and scrape out all that vanilla caviar goodness. I drop it into the bowl of the sugar for ease of incorporation. I put both the regular sugar and the powdered sugar into the same bowl. It looks crazy but trust me it is worth it.

The first trick for getting your meringue to come out well is to take the bowl you are using and rub the cut side of a lemon all around it. It's ok if the juice comes out a bit. What rubbing the lemon around the bowl does is help remove any underlying fat that could be lingering. One killer of a beautifully whipped egg white is exposure to fats like butter, or it's own yolk when you are starting to incorporate air. Sometimes no matter how well we wash our bowls residual fat could still be hiding. The lemon helps counteract that. After you rub the bowl down well with the lemon grab a paper towel and wipe out the bowl.

Next separate the yolks from the eggs. Place the two bowls pulled out for this task next to each other. One for the whites and one for the yolk. Crack the first egg and take the top of the shell off while hovering over bowl one. Take one hand palm side up and hover it over the same bowl and dump the rest of the egg in your palm so the white will slip through your fingers while you gently hold the yolk. This will help make sure you don't break the yolk when you separate the eggs. Put the yolk in the second bowl. Drop that egg white into the mixing bowl you will be using to whip the egg whites. The reason to do one egg at a time may seem time consuming but I prefer to do it this way just in case you get a bad egg. If you get a bad egg while using this method you have only lost one egg not the whole batch you were working on. Once you have all the whites added to your mixing bowl, add the cream of tartar (another trick to ensure your meringue whips up nicely) and the pinch of salt and turn that mixer on med/high until you have reached a fairly stiff peak. If you are doing this by hand I commend you sir. That is quite the undertaking.

Next while at a medium speed gradually add the sugar. I do this by large spoonful and shaking the sugar in slowly then waiting a few turns before the next spoonful.

Do this until all the sugar is added.

Turn the mixer speed up to high and beat until the sugar is fully incorporated and you end up with glossy stiff peaks in the meringue. The mixture will definitely feel stiffer if you were to pull the whisk through by hand.

Beat in the tsp of vanilla extract and now for the fun personalization part. If you do not wish to use chocolate that is ok. You can leave it plain or add a different extract, freeze dried raspberries, gel food coloring, the sky's the limit. Since I doubled the recipe, I put half of the mixture into the other mixing bowl and beat in 1/4 c of a good dutch processed cocoa powder. You could fold it in but I have no problem using a whisk to mix it in. To the other bowl I took the melted chocolate ( I used a mixture of 62% and 70% semisweet and bittersweet half of each bar) and drizzled it across the top of the meringue in the bowl and the used a spoon to take dollop sizes out while keeping the swirl Do not mix in the melted chocolate. You want a contrast if you are following along.

Drop the spoonfuls on the parchment lined cookie sheet.

Put them in the oven and bake 50 minutes to an hour. Do NOT OPEN THE OVEN WHILE COOKING!!! When the timer is up shut off the oven and crack it slightly and let it cool down.

Those babays definitely doubled in size!!!

The meringues should peel easily off the parchment paper. Put on a wire rack to finish cooling. If you really want to get crazy you can coat the cocoa powder ones in the leftover melted chocolate for some fun. Just remember that they are very fragile so take care when doing so. I prefer to gently hold them in one hand and use a spoon to coat half with the melted chocolate.

Then serve those beautiful babies up on your fanciest dish (even if you are by your onesie because you deserve it) and enjoy.

This recipe makes a crunchy meringue cookie that will also melt in your mouth. If you would like a chewier mouth feel try making the temp 200 and cook in the oven for an hour then when the time is up turn off the oven and let them sit in the oven until it cools down. Usually that takes about an hour.

Now you don't have to go as rustic as I did with the look of them. You could add the mix to a piping bag and squeeze out some lovely looking shapes and that will just add to the crowd pleasing factor. I hope you experiment and have as much fun making these as I do.

So pop yourself a bottle of your favorite sparkling and enjoy a tasty treat. I know I will.

#meringue #valentinestreats #easydessert