Swiss meringue is perfect to make airy like a cloud chewy cookies!
ingredients for about 15 pieces (total cost about 3 € with organic ingredients)
- 2 egg whites (about 65-70 g)
- 95 g superfine sugar
- 100 g shredded coconut
- zest from 1/2 lemon
- a pinch of cream of tartar
There are 3 basic types of meringue. The French which is made by egg whites while sprinkling them with sugar, the Italian in which we whip the whites, while pouring over hot syrup and finally the Swiss which is made by whipping whites together with the sugar over a double boiler (bain marie).
Whipping the egg whites in a bain-marie allows to trap in more air and forms smaller bubbles, leading to the creation of a denser meringue compared to the others, therefore more suitable for meringue cookies. So, whenever I want to make meringue cookies to make profit of my egg white left overs, I choose the swiss method.
This time I decided to make them with shredded coconut enhanced with a little lemon zest, and topped with a whole blanched almond. It is a beloved classic of mine.
So to prepare them, this is what we do.
First of all we have to peel the almonds by blanching them for a minute in boiling water, to easily remove the peel, then we have to briefly roast them. We lay them on a baking tray, and place them in a preheated oven at 150 o C, for about 12-13 minutes. We keep aside.
In a bowl suitable for bain marie we put the egg whites along with the cream of tartar and the sugar, then we place the bowl over a saucepan filled less than halfway up with simmering water (water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). With a hand mixer, we whisk constantly at very low speed, until the sugar dissolves completely and the egg whites warm up to the touch (around 50 o C).
We remove the bowl from the bain marie, and we start whipping, beginning from low speed and increasing gradually to high, until the meringue cools down and becomes stiff and really glossy. If we have a stand mixer, it will be better to transfer the meringue there to whip it, but it is not mandatory. Finally, we gently fold in the shredded coconut and the freshly grated lemon zest. If we don’t like the feeling of “biting” the coconut, we can make it more fine by grinding it.
We pile generous spoonfuls of the meringue mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment, making sure to leave a reasonable space between them, as they will spread during baking. We top each cookie with a roasted almond.
We bake in a static preheated oven at 170 o C (150 o C in case of using ventilated oven) for about 15 minutes, or until begin to turn to golden-brown. Have in mind that when we have to remove them from the oven they will still be soft to touch, but they will stiffen, as soon as they cool.
We let them cool for 15-20 minutes, then we transfer them on a wire rack and let them dry completely, before storing them in an air tight container, lined with parchment. If you pile layers of cookies, it would also be better to place parchment sheets between them, as the meringues tend to be a little sticky.
