Christmas Tree Meringue Cookies

I made these (mostly) for my sister today. I used the idea from Baker's Royale Blog, but the recipe from My Bakingdom. Actually, not entirely. I adapted the raspberry meringue cookie recipe  adding mint flavor instead of raspberry and changing the baking technique just a bit.

Aren't they cute? Of course, I don't have the right icing tip for piping ones that look just like Baker's Royale, but I used what I had... it works.

And they taste awesome.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate-Mint Meringue Cbristmas Trees
Makes 3 to 6 dozen (depending on the how big you make them)

Ingredients

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 to 1/4 peppermint extract (be very careful measuring, a little goes a long way)
Green Food coloring

1/4 to 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place chocolate chips about 1 1/2- to 2-inches apart on the sheet.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar. Place the bowl on top of a medium sauce pan filled with a couple of inches of barely simmering water and set over medium heat. 

Gently whisk the mixture constantly until the sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes. Transfer the bowl to the standing mixer (if you’re not using a standing mixer, just remove the bowl from heat and use a hand mixer), and whisk the mixture on high until stiff peaks form. Stir in the extract and food coloring, if using.

Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip (or comparable), fill with the meringue, and pipe tree-shaped cookies onto prepared baking sheets, centering each star on top of a chocolate chip. Refill bag as necessary.

Bake at 170 for 1-1.5 hours, turn oven off and allow to cool inside oven.* 

*this is where my baking method differs from Darla's. She bakes for 1hr40min and takes the cookies out of the oven. I like to bake less time and turn the oven off to let them cruise into the finish line.