Double Chocolate Meringue Cookies
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Delicate and crisp on the exterior and super fudgy on the interior, these chocolate meringue cookies melt in your mouth!
No flour, no butter, and yet these are delicious chocolate cookies — delicate and crisp on the exterior and super fudgy on the interior. The recipe is adapted from Alice Medrich’s wonderful cookie book, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies (Artisan, 2010). Unlike most chocolate meringue cookie recipes, which call for cocoa powder and melted chocolate, Medrich’s version uses only melted chocolate, which results in intensely chocolate, light-as-a-cloud, melt-in-your-mouth cookies. And if you’re a fan of meringue, chocolate, and/or flourless desserts, I bet you’ll also love my Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies and Double Chocolate Pavlova.
“Phenomenal flavor–pure deep dark chocolatey fudgy deliciousness…yet so light they melt in your mouth.”
What You’ll Need To Make Double Chocolate Meringue Cookies
- Semisweet Chocolate: Provides a rich, deep chocolate flavor. The chocolate plays a central role in the cookies so be sure to use best quality, such as Ghirardelli.
- Egg Whites: Create the meringue structure and give the cookies their fudgy texture.
- Cream Of Tartar: Stabilizes the egg whites and helps them hold their shape.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds a hint of sweetness and enhances the chocolate flavor.
- Sugar: Sweetens the cookies and helps create a glossy meringue.
- Milk Chocolate Chips: Add bursts of creamy chocolate throughout the cookies. Use best quality, such as Ghirardelli.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Begin by breaking the chocolate into small pieces into a microwave-safe bowl.
Gently melt it in the microwave by blasting in 20-second intervals, stirring in between. Pull the chocolate out of the microwave when it’s about 75% melted.
Stir, allowing the residual heat in the bowl to melt the chocolate completely. This method keeps the chocolate from scorching.
Set the chocolate aside and separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. My method is to crack the egg in half, and then pour the egg from one broken shell into the other, letting the white fall into the bowl below while keeping the yolk intact in the shells as I pour. Be sure that not even a trace of egg yolk gets into the egg whites; even a tiny bit of fat will prevent them from stiffening. (Additionally, be sure your bowl and beaters are squeaky clean, and avoid plastic bowls which always hold a trace of residue.) Discard the yolks or save for something else.
Combine the egg whites with salt, cream of tartar and vanilla and beat until soft peaks form.
Beat until soft peaks form when you lift the beaters out of the mixture.
Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. As you can see, stiff peaks hold their shape when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.
Add the melted chocolate and chocolate chips.
Gently fold together, taking care not to deflate the egg whites.
Fold until the mixture is uniform in color, but no more.
Drop mounds of batter on parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the tops are crisp but the insides are gooey and soft when you press on them.
My only changes to Alice Medrich’s recipe were to add a pinch of salt and swap out the walnuts for milk chocolate chips to make them kid-friendly.
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Double Chocolate Meringue Cookies
Delicate and crisp on the exterior and super fudgy on the interior, these chocolate meringue cookies melt in your mouth!
Ingredients
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate (best quality, such as Ghirardelli)
- 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
- ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips (best quality, such as Ghirardelli)
Instructions
- Set two oven racks in the middle positions and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Break the chocolate into small pieces into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring in between each bout of heat, until about 75% melted. Stir until smooth, allowing the residual heat in the bowl to melt the chocolate completely. (This technique ensures the chocolate mixture will not get too hot and scorch.) Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, vanilla and salt until soft peaks form when you lift the beaters (the peaks should be just starting to hold, and will melt back into themselves after a second). Gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form (the peaks will stand straight up when the beaters are lifted from the mixture). Pour the warm chocolate and chocolate chips into the bowl and fold with a spatula until the batter is uniform. Do not overmix.
- Immediately drop heaping tablespoons of the batter about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies look dry on the surface but are still very gooey inside when you press on them. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, and then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Enjoy on the same day or carefully wrap in an airtight container (don't stack them as they crumble easily).
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (18 - 20 servings)
- Serving size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 67
- Fat: 3 g
- Saturated fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 10 g
- Sugar: 9 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Sodium: 21 mg
- Cholesterol: 1 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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So so yummy! It was surprising to see how chocolatey and decadent this cookie is. It’s hard to believe there is no flour and it’s just meringue. The texture is spot on. I do not like sweet cookies so I made a small change. Instead of milk, chocolate, are used dark chocolate. And, because it calls for so little sugar, I can even rationalize that it’s more healthy than a regular cookie so I can eat a whole bunch more! Oh, dear me … 😝
These cookies turned out amazing, thank you! I scooped 14 cookies and followed an older comment saying to cook for 15′ and leave out in an open oven for 10′, the middle wasn’t as gooey, around 13′ would be more appropriate if you want it less dry. This one’s on the sweeter side if you’re used to East Asian level of sweet, so I’d recommend going up on cocoa%, I did 60% and 33% for chips with nuts and would try 70% next or nuts with some salt.
Delicious, easy, doubles well – and definitely double it! I don’t see how this makes more than 16 cookies as a single recipe, as I use a scoop that’s smaller than a tablespoon, and making heaping scoops I was able to create about 30 cookies. Used a combination of Ghiradelli semi-sweet and Guittard bittersweet chocolate. This is all about the chocolate, so be sure to use the good stuff. Thanks for another gluten-free winner!
We bought 85% chocolate by mistake, so I used that instead of the recommended semi-sweet chocolate. I put a little bit less, but the cookies still taste a little bitter. I am pretty sure they’ll still get eaten, but I’m looking forward making the recipe with the right chocolate. Very easy gluten-free recipe! Just stick to the correct ingredients 🙂
If that happens again, just add some extra sugar.
I can barely bake – but I actually made these for my friends. I was amazed at how well they turned out. They were unusual and a new favorite with so many having gluten and nut allergies. Great recipe. Thank you
Hi Jen,
Could you add chopped walnuts/pecans to these?
Sure Jacqui, I’d add about 1/2 cup along with the chocolate chips. Enjoy!
Question— what will happen if I bake these at a lower temperature, 280 F for example, for a longer period of time? Or If I put them in a preheated oven, turn the oven off, and leave for several hours? Thank you
Hi Nancy, The lower temp will work, but if you shut the preheated oven off, you will likely need to leave them in much longer, about 12 hours. Hope that helps!
To say these are great is an understatement. I make them all year long, but most importantly, they are great at Passover since they don’t contain flour or other ingredient that is not acceptable. My wife and son’s love them as do all of our friends who join us for the First Sedar as well as at other times of the year
Hi Jenn,
The cookies were crispy on the outside and so fudgy in the middle. The best cookie ever. I only made 20 cookies which must mean my scoops were way too big. I usually measure my cookie dough balls in grams, but I didn’t see that measurement. I baked them for 9 minutes, and while they were cooling in the pan, some of them flattened out. Of course they were still delicious but I wander what I might have done wrong. I looked up the measurements for the chocolate chips and sugar in grams so I don’t think that was my problem. Please advise as to the ‘flat’ cookies. Thank you for the most amazing recipes ever!
Hi Monica, Glad you enjoyed them! Since your cookies were a bit bigger, I wonder if you needed to cook them a bit longer for them to set?
Your recipes are simply THE BEST, PERIOD. THE. BEST.
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Needed egg yolks for another recipe, and wanted to make use of the whites. This was a great way to go! I worried that the melted chocolate was going to be too heavy and ‘flatten’ the whisked whites, but it didn’t – and I loved that the whole recipe used only 1/4 cup of sugar. The mixture didn’t look quite as ‘integrated’ as Jenn’s – but the cookies did when they came out of the oven.
I think my ‘heaping tablespoon’ was a bit generous, so I made just 16 meringues, and they needed extra time in the oven. They baked for 15 minutes, and then I shut off the heat, opened the door a crack, and left them in another ten minutes before taking them out to cool. It was a rainy day here in Portland, Maine, so I knew I was going to have to dry them out a little more than the recipe called for. The end result was everything I hoped for!
Totally agree, but re: sugar amount, remember all the sugar in the added chocolate! Definitely not a low sugar recipe 🙂
Thank you for posting this recipe! I am wondering whether anybody has converted the quantities of the ingredients in grams. I am really struggling with USA’s and UK’s ounces, cups and teaspoons.
Thank you
Hi Alex, I just added metric/weight measurements to the recipe. To view them, scroll down to the recipe, and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. Hope that helps and that you enjoy the cookies!