Choose your own adventure with this classic meringue recipe. You can pipe the meringue to resemble mushroom caps and stems, glue them together with chocolate, and arrive at a platter full of very life-like meringue fungi to decorate your bûche de Noël for a true forest-themed masterpiece. (They’re time consuming, but are a traditional part of the bûche de Noël experience — and they never cease to garner applause and delight from dinner guests.)
Or, if you’re not feeling the forest theme or simply don’t have the patience for piping, the meringue can also be spooned onto a baking sheet into messy clouds and eaten as cookies. The garnish for either is up to you; I’m feeling chopped pistachios lately, but you could also sprinkle them with broken up candy canes, toasted coconut, or crushed freeze-dried raspberries.
If you’re going the mushroom route, make sure to bake the meringues until completely dry and hollow — letting them rest in the turned-off oven after baking for a few hours will help them become sturdier. Once they’re baked and cooled sufficiently, they’ll be easier to assemble and won’t buckle when pressed into the cake.
As for the cookies, if you’re after shatteringly crisp cookies, bake them until very dry and let them rest in the turned off oven for a few hours (or overnight). If you prefer a cookie that’s crispy on the outside but luxuriously marshmallow-soft in the center, bake them fully, but dry them in the turned-off oven for just an hour or so.
Meringue Mushrooms or Cookies
Makes about 24 mushrooms or 18 cookies
Ingredients:
3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup finely chopped 70 percent dark chocolate (for mushrooms only)
½ cup finely chopped pistachios, crushed candy canes, toasted coconut, or crushed freeze dried raspberries (for cookies only)
Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 225ºF. Line a rimmed half-sheet pan with parchment and set aside. Beat the egg whites in a stand mixer on medium high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Add the cream of tartar and salt and beat on medium speed until very soft peaks form when you stop the mixer and lift the beaters — roughly 30 seconds more.
Step 2: Turn off the mixer and add 1 heaping tablespoon of sugar. Turn the mixer back on and beat well for about 30 seconds. Turn off the mixer and add another heaping tablespoon of sugar. Repeat the process until all the sugar has been added.
Step 3: Add the vanilla and continue to beat, switching to high speed, until the mixture is very stiff and the sugar has dissolved completely, about 10 minutes.
Step 4: For meringue mushrooms, spoon the meringue into a large pastry bag fitted with a round ¼-inch pastry tip. Pipe half of the meringue onto the prepared sheet pan into the shape of mushroom caps (1 to 2 inches wide), tamping down any peaks or points with a wet fingertip. Sift the cocoa powder over the caps sparingly. Pipe the other half of the meringue into 1 to 1 ½-inch high towers — aka mushroom stems.
Step 5: Bake until the pieces are firm but with no hint of color and they can easily be peeled off the parchment, about 1 ½ hours. Turn the oven off and let the meringues cool in the oven to further dry them out, about 2 hours and up to overnight.
Step 6: When the piece are firm enough, melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave on high in 30 second bursts, stirring between, until smooth and melted.
Step 7: Peel the meringue mushroom parts off the foil. Bore small holes into the bottoms of the caps with a paring knife. Spread the bottoms with some of the melted chocolate. Fit the narrow end of the stems into the holes in the caps, adding more chocolate if necessary, to get the two parts to fuse. Let them dry completely.
Step 8: For cookies, follow the instructions up to the end of Step 3. Drop the meringue by heaping tablespoons onto two parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with the topping of your choice. Bake until they are firm but with no hint of color and can easily be peeled from the parchment, about 2 hours. Turn off the oven and let the cookies dry out further for at least 2 hours (for softer centers) or up to overnight (for crispy-throughout cookies).
The mushrooms and cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days. If you have a desiccate packet (the kind found in nori seaweed packages and vitamin bottles), add it to the container to help keep the moisture in check and keep the meringues crisp.
Dina Ávila is a photographer living in Portland, Oregon.