Chocolate Hazelnut meringue cookies

I made this cake
























Nine inch disks of rich meringue - morsels of chocolate and hazelnut in every bite - layered with homemade whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings. The combination of flavors was fantastic!

Then I tried to cut this cake

























Yes - that is the hand of my then 5 year old. As you can see slicing this cake was a bit of a challenge. After attempting to slice a second piece it looked like this




Needless to say, I needed to make some adjustments.

I decided to make the cake into cookies and hope for the best. Maybe the cookies would be a bit more user friendly and still present as beautifully as the cake did (the cake no-one could touch)

 For the cookies YOU WILL NEED:

1 1/2 cups hazelnuts - toasted and chopped (do this part first and then set aside until ready to use)

6 large egg whites - at room temperature

dash of salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup mini chocolate chips (use the mini - do not use the regular size - it makes a difference)

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (around half a cup worked out fine)

3 cups heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

dark or bittersweet chocolate for shaving



TO DO:

In the bowl of a standing mixer (use the whisk attachment) beat the egg whites with a dash of salt until you get soft peaks - while waiting for this melt the 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate then set aside - Slowly add the sugar into the egg white mixture until you get stiff peaks. Add the vanilla extract and give everything a quick mix again. Now fold in the hazelnuts that you already toasted and chopped and have let cool. Then pour the melted chocolate down a side of the bowl and carefully fold it into the egg white mixture.



























Give everything a light stir - just enough to get some pretty color going throughout the mix.

Do drops of about a tablespoon size of meringue mixture - enough to fill the cookie sheet since they do not spread very much


























Bake at 200 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Then let cool in the oven for another hour or so. Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes.




In the meantime make the whipped cream and mix with dark chocolate shavings (this is the 3 cups of heavy whipping cream and a 1/3 cup of confectioners sugar)









Serve the cookies with a small bowl of the cream on the side for dipping - maybe add some more chocolate to the top of the whipped cream (why not?)  Delicious.