Meringue Mushrooms

Hi everyone! This post is going up a little early as I'm traveling and didn't want to take the chance of not getting to a computer in the morning!

Today I'm posting about a recipe that I actually made a long time ago with my wonderful Mom. This was for either a Christmas or New Years (think it was the latter), a year or two ago, and they were a huge hit. The concept is easy- you make meringues, then shape them into mushroom shapes, bake, and assemble. The end result looks fantastic (and like you spent a long time on it!) and is so much fun to eat- let's get to it.

Sorry for the messy counter (wasn't thinking of blogging this!), but here are our baked meringues going through their assembly process- putting them upside down for the chocolate to set is essential- much easier.

Assembled Meringue Mushrooms- aren't they the cutest thing? And you can see from this that they do not need to be perfect or even for them to be beautiful, fantastic, and yummy to eat!

Meringue Mushrooms
-2 large egg whites
-1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/4 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
-semi-sweet chocolate (for glue-ing the tops and stems together)
-cocoa (for dusting)
Beat room-temp. egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Continue beating and add in sugar- beat until whites are stiff and all sugar has dissolved.
Put your meringue in a ziploc bag and cut a hole in the corner (or use a pastry bag if you're fancy!).
Pipe mushroom caps (make a flat circle) and stems (make meringue shapes that stand upright) onto cookie sheets covered in parchment paper.
Bake meringues for approximately 1 hour at 200 F. Rotate the baking sheets halfway through baking. Let meringues cool completely in the oven.
When the meringues are cool, melt your semi-sweet chocolate. Spread it on the underside of the 'caps', then 'glue' them to the stems. We used a microplane grater to smooth the tops of the stems if needed. Once assembled, we let the chocolate set with the mushrooms upside down.
Once mushrooms have set, dust the tops with cocoa powder.
(See this post at Joy of Baking for more tips on piping/shaping, though I did not use the recipe.)

We served our mushrooms in a 'food lanscape',  if you will. Brownies for land or a log, ice cream stones, and meringue mushrooms on top- get creative!

 Give this a shot- I was intimidated at first, but it's just a few more steps from a regular meringue recipe, which is really quite simple. Good luck- go and wow your friends.

Savor it!
love, rue