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These elegant chocolate-dipped Meringue Cookies are light, crisp, and delicate. They practically melt in your mouth. Plus, they’re a total crowd-pleaser!
These meringue cookies are miraculously light, airy confections that practically melt in your mouth. Made from just a few simple ingredients — primarily egg whites and sugar— they are SO easy. But none of your guests would know it.
These cookies are one of the most elegant little desserts you’ve ever laid eyes on and they LOOK (and taste) like you spent the whole day slaving over them.
Leave ’em plain or dip them in dark chocolate for a black and white tuxedo look and watch as people flock to the dessert table. Oh, oh AND each cookie only has like 33 calories in it (sans chocolate), so you can kind of have as many as you want.
Why I Love This Recipe
- SO easy. 1 bowl. 6 ingredients. That’s all it takes to make these gorgeous little desserts. The hardest part is waiting the 3 hours it takes them to bake and cool.
- Elegant. Dressed in black and white, these beautiful meringues are sure to turn heads. Everyone will think you slaved over them. No need to tell them how easy they were to make.
Ingredient Notes
You’ll only need a few ingredients for this meringue cookies recipe. Here’s a quick look at what you’ll need. Be sure to scroll to the recipe card below for a printable list.
For the cookies
- Egg whites – From large eggs. Bring your eggs to room temperature before using. They will whip up better.
- Cream of tartar – The cream of tartar help add structure to the meringue.
- Granulated sugar
- Pure vanilla extract – You could add a dash of almond extract in addition to or instead of vanilla.
For the chocolate
- Dark chocolate chips – I chopped mine up for easier melting. You could use milk or white chocolate chips here instead, if you’d prefer.
- Vegetable oil – The vegetable oil gives the chocolate a nice sheen and makes it the perfect consistency for dipping.
Getting Stiff Peaks for Meringue
- Clean and dry: Start with a TOTALLY dry, TOTALLY clean mixing bowl for the batter. Any extra moisture or grease will get in the way of the egg whites whipping into perfect stiff peaks.
- Room temperature eggs: Room temperature egg whites will whip up into stiff peaks much more easily than cold egg whites.
- A note on separating egg whites from the yolks: I highly suggest separating your whites from your yolks using two bowls. Even a tiny fleck of yolk could ruin your meringues. Crack one egg at a time into a clean, dry bowl, discarding the yolk. Transfer the white to the mixing bowl you intend to make the batter in. Repeat with the remaining eggs.
- Have patience: Whip the egg whites until foamy before adding the cream of tarter and beating until soft peaks form. Finally, add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time (I mean it) until stiff peaks form.
- Don’t over-whip: Once you see those stiff peaks, STOP! Over-beating the batter will ruin your perfect stiff peaks just as much as anything else.
Shaping the Meringue Cookies
One of the many beautiful things about these cookies is that you can kind of shape them any way you’d like. Some people choose to put the batter in a piping bag and pipe the cookies into swirls. Others choose to spoon dollops of batter onto the baking sheet for a more free-form cookies.
It’s totally up to you. I think I prefer the piping method for a more elegant outcome.
Additional Tips & Variation Ideas
- Rotate the pan: The little meringues deserve even baking, don’t you think? Rotate the pan halfway through the baking time to ensure each and every meringue gets what it needs.
- Cool INSIDE the oven: Once the baking time is up, turn the oven off and let the meringues cool completely in the oven. They will finish baking during this time. Only remove them when they are no longer sticking to the parchment paper (or your fingers).
- Let the chocolate set at room temp: I get that you want to speed the process along, but do not stick the chocolate-dipped meringues in the fridge. Let the melted chocolate solidify on the cookies at room temperature.
- No chocolate, no problem: I decided I wanted to dip my meringues in chocolate, but don’t have to. They are pretty amazing as is.
- Dipping options: Not a dark chocolate fan? Feel free to replace the dark chocolate with milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, or even white chocolate. Heck…you could melt down peanut butter or butterscotch chips if you wanted to! And feel free to sprinkle some chopped nuts, pretzels, or candy cane over the chocolate coating before it dries.
- Extract exploration: Vanilla extract is a classic choice here, but you could replace it with a smaller amount of almond extract, lemon extract, or even peppermint extract for the holidays.
More Cookie Recipes
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Black and White Meringue Cookies
Ingredients
FOR THE COOKIES
- 2 large egg whites, , at room temperature
- 1/2- teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2- cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FOR THE CHOCOLATE
- 1/4- cup dark chocolate chips, , chopped
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Instructions
FOR THE COOKIES
- Preheat oven to 200F.
- Arrange two oven racks to divide oven in thirds.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy.
- Add cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.
- Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until egg whites are shiny and stiff peaks form. DO NOT overbeat.
- Add vanilla and beat until incorporated.
- Pipe or spoon 24 (2-inch-round) mounds onto previously prepared baking sheets.
- Place in oven and bake for 2 hours, rotating pans halfway through cooking.
- Turn oven off and Cool meringues in oven 40 minutes to 1 hour. (Meringues are done when surface is dry and meringues can be removed from paper without sticking to fingers.)
- Remove from oven and carefully remove meringues from paper.
FOR THE CHOCOLATE
- Combine chopped chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a small microwave-safe bowl.
- Melt chocolate in the microwave for 40 seconds to 1 minute, or until melted and smooth.
- Dip half of each cookie in melted chocolate.
- Let any excess chocolate drip off before placing on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
- Allow to set at room temperature; do not put in the fridge.
- Once set, serve or store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
These cookies are gorgeous! Almost too pretty to eat. Almost. I also will do anything to avoid getting sick. Garlic works! I eat it everyday. Apple cider vinegar is another good choice.
Garlic and pineapple juice sounds awful. Let me know if it helps though – I’ll do just about anything to avoid illness!
These look awesome. My meringues always brown so I’m definitely going to try your recipe.
Well aren’t these cookies pretty! Love that dip (or dunk!) in chocolate!
Oh, delightful! De-“lite”ful? Haha…nice to know they are a great that borders on the healthy side of things:)
HAHA!! I LOVE IT! 😀 Thank you, ELLEN! xo