mint chocolate chip meringues;
Originally posted December 26, 2016. Updated January 2025 for content and clarity.
When the holidays roll around and you’ve filled your belly with all those yummy comfort dishes and desserts, sometimes you just want something light and airy like mint chocolate chip meringues! Don’t get me wrong, I looooove traditional holiday foods: mashed potatoes, ham, sweet potato casserole, and of course cookies! But sometimes you need to give your belly a break and take a breather. These mint chocolate chip meringues are just the thing!
They’re super light, and crumbly but the sweet mint flavor shines through and still makes it festive. Plus, each bite has a few sweet mini chocolate chips for extra texture and sweetness. I forgot to sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top of this particular batch, but as you can see, they’re still chock full of chocolate chips on the inside.
The biggest tip for these mint chocolate meringues I can leave you with is test your piping tip. Or don’t use one at all. Make sure your piping bag has a tip wide enough to handle the mini chocolate chips. Otherwise the chips will cause blockages and either make little explosions of meringue, rip your bag, or whatever other mischievous frustrations they can cause. You may even opt to leave a tip off entirely.
Make sure your piping bag has a tip wide enough to handle the mini chocolate chips. You may even opt to leave a tip off entirely.
secret to success
Whatever you decide, test the tip before you add the meringue cream to the piping bag. Or else suffer like me, who had to transfer my mint chocolate chip meringue batter three stinkin’ times. (And a lot of goop on me and my counters and even cabinets.) And I couldn’t find a tip that fit so I just used the straight piping bag. Sheesh.
This recipe is perfect for to use leftover egg whites. I have many recipes that use extra egg yolks to help with chewiness and extra richness: like vanilla honey soft-serve or supersized double-chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I hate wasting things, and meringues are an easy, simple recipe with a few ingredients that are easy to whip up with some leftover egg whites.
Mint chocolate chip meringues are meant to be light and fluffy but dried out completely. To achieve the proper texture you want to take it low and slow. The low temperature will dry the cookie out slowly, almost like dehydrating more than baking. And you’re left with a delicate cookie. Be warned: they’re messy! If you take a bite, they crumple into a thousand pieces.
Low temperatures and patience are the key to a good meringue!
secret to success
And you’ll leave the meringue in the oven after you turn it off to continue with the dehydrating. As the temperature of the oven returns to room temperature, it will gently cool your cookies. Taking them out to room temperature can shock them and make them more brittle and fragile.
These mint chocolate chip meringues are actually an odd bit of nostalgia. I say odd because I don’t really know what made them stick out to me. When we were little, my parents would take my sister and I to a Christmas story reading sometimes, and they’d always have a huuuuge spread of cookies after. I think one year I tried a mint meringue and was like whaaaa? Why are these so good!
But I never made them or even went out of my way to buy them or eat them anywhere but at that Christmas reading. I think they were just store-bought, nothing fancy, but they were just so different from all the other Christmas cookies I had experienced before.
Traditional meringues are dry throughout and should not have any chew left to them. However, I personally actually like the chewy middle so I undertake my mint chocolate chip meringues about 10-15 minutes.
I actually prefer my meringues a little chewy so I underbake my mint chocolate chip meringues about 10-15 minutes.
secret to success
For the classic fully-dry meringues, follow the recipe. Keep in mind you may need to adjust based on the humidity in the air and your oven temperature. (Some run hot and some run cold.) You’ll have to do a little experimentation and try for yourself what works in your kitchen to get the exact texture you want.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! If you’re trying to scale back after a decadent holiday season, these sweet little mint chocolate chip meringues can help you meet your goals without sacrificing some small indulgences.
secrets to success;
Want all the best tips and tricks to make this recipe a success? Check out the blog post above to find out more!
more recipes;
Looking for other light and sweet desserts? Check out these refreshing options:
- I love a reverse strawberry shortcake. Heavy on the sweet fruit, but still with a topping of pound cake or angel food cake to make it decadent.
- Macarons are a French classic and can sometimes be challenging to make. But these cookie dough macarons are one of my favorite snacks! Light, airy, crumbly, and slightly chewy, macarons are delicate and delicious.
- For a beautifully chewy and fresh Asian dessert, opt for strawberry mochi. Homemade the rice dough is so soft and luxurious and you can stuff it with your favorite flavors like fresh strawberries or peanut butter. Or take it up a notch with ice cream mochi! These frozen little bites are the perfect summer treat.
mint chocolate chip meringues;
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites room temperature
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp cream of tartar
- ⅛ tsp peppermint extract
- green food coloring (exact amount will depend on brand)
- ½ cup sugar
- ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Prepare a piping bag, if using. Ensure that your piping tip has a hole big enough for the mini chocolate chips (they're bigger than you think). My piping tips really aren't conducive to this, so I just forgo the tip entirely and use the piping bag directly.
- Add to a large bowl three egg whites, ⅛ tsp salt, ⅛ tsp cream of tartar, ⅛ tsp peppermint extract⅛, and green food coloring. (Exact amount of food coloring will depend on brand and what shade of green you prefer. Start small and you can always add more.)
- Begin beating egg white mixture with a hand or stand mixer until the liquid egg whites froth and become opaque white, beginning to double in size.
- While still continuing to whip, slowly add in the sugar. Make sure to scrape down the sides once all sugar is added, then resume whipping. It should turn glossy.
- Whip until stiff peaks form. This means that if you remove a beater from the batter, it will retain a peaked shape pretty rigidly.
- Add in chocolate chips; optionally you can reserve ¼ cup to sprinkle on top later if desired. Gently fold with a spatula, stirring as little as possible so as not to disturb the air whipped into the meringues.
- Transfer to a piping bag, if using. Pipe meringue cookies onto a baking sheet 2" apart. Alternatively, grab a spoon and plop a heaping Tablespoon of meringue onto the cookie sheet. Sprinkle tops with reserved chocolate chips as needed.
- Bake at 300°F for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250°F and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes. You want the meringues to be dry, with just a bare hint of brown on the bottoms.
- Once the meringues have baked 20-25 minutes, turn off the oven leaving the meringue inside. Allow to cool in the oven for 20-30 minutes before serving or storing. Store in an airtight container. Meringues may be a little chewy inside if underbaked (but I actually like them this way). They also may get a bit chewy after storing a few days if they absorb moisture in the air.
1 Comments
perfectly chewy chocolate chip cookies; – tipsychocochip
May 30, 2017 at 9:45 pm
[…] crustless veggie quiche. Or go all out on the cookie front with something lighter like these mint chocolate chip meringues (tcc recipe) that use only the egg whites. In either case, you might want to double or triple […]