Strawberry Meringue Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate Ganache
Much tastier than your average dozen of roses, these melt in your mouth ganache filled meringue sandwich cookies are perfect for your special valentine.
Meringue cookies are a beautiful and delicate cookie to have in your cookie repertoire. They are positively wonderful for special occasions and ,of course, the odd sugar craving. That’s why for Valentine’s Day I decided to make these lovely cookies but with a seasonal twist. I decided to flavor my meringue with a strawberry sugar and then sandwich them with a bittersweet chocolate ganache, very reminiscent of a chocolate covered strawberry. And then if that wasn’t enough, I also piped the meringue to look like little roses. If this cookie doesn’t ooze the romantic vibes of Valentine’s Day, I don’t know what does!
Rose Meringue Cookies
4 large egg whites-about 4oz
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup strawberry powder
Red food color (optional)
Ganache
100 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped
100 grams heavy cream
Strawberry Sugar
Prepared with strawberry powder and granulated sugar. Mixed until it’s fully combined, aka pretty & pink.
Preheat the oven to 250°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix together granulated sugar and strawberry powder. Mix until fully incorporated into one another and the sugar is dark pink in color.
In a large mixing bowl for a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment. Beat until foamy, then add the salt and cream of tartar.
Add the strawberry sugar gradually, continuing to beat, until the meringue is thick and glossy, with stiff peaks. The meringue will be a very pale pink color, if you wish to have it a darker pink add some red food coloring in a drop at a time and gently fold into the meringue.
I literally only added one drop of red food coloring to achieve a light blush colored meringue. Feel free to be creative with the colors. You can easily do a darker pink or a sultry red, just add more red food coloring until you achieve your preferred color. My only caution is to be careful when folding the food coloring. The more you fold and handle the meringue the more air is lost from the meringue. Over folding your meringue will end with a flatter and more dense cookie. Not the airy, melt in your mouth cookie that we are trying to achieve.
Prep a piping bag with a star piping tip, my favorite for this application is a #190 star tip from Wilton. Fill the bag with the meringue and pipe rosettes on the lined baking sheet. To pipe the rosette start in the middle and make a circle until you get about an 1 inch round cookie. The star shaped piping tip will make it look like a rose. I used this video as a quick reference because I am not the best at piping and I’m still trying to perfect the skill.
Bake for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and let the roses cool in the unopened oven for 2 hours. For the love of your meringues DO NOT PEEK! You will have to just trust the process and keep yourself busy. Trust me, it’s very hard to not peek.
The meringues will have a slightly chewy center and a very crisp outside. If you rather have a very crispy cookie, leave them for 3 hours instead of 2 hours. If you want an even chewier meringue, leave it for 1 ½ hours instead of 2 hours. But remember, you want the cookie to have a little crispiness so it has the structure to be used as a sandwich cookie. There is a limit to making these cookies overly chewy from the get go.
Remove the cookies from the oven and finish cooling on a wire rack until completely cooled.
While your cookies cool, make the ganache. In a small bowl measure out the chopped chocolate and put aside. Put the heavy cream in a small pot and set to medium low heat on the stove. Warm cream until it’s steaming and very warm. When the cream is steaming pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for a few minutes. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted into the cream and becomes glossy. Let the ganache sit out on the counter until it is cooled to room temperature. The ganache will be thick and cream, very similar to the texture of peanut butter.
Once the cookies and the ganache are cooled, make the sandwich cookies by placing a small dollop of ganache in the middle of the flat side of the cookie. Gently sandwich the cookies together. Serve and enjoy.
Store the cookies in an airtight container. They keep for up to a week after they are assembled, longer if you leave them unassembled.
*Notes:
If you can not find strawberry powder you can very easily make your own. Take a ¼ cup of freeze dried strawberries and blitz them with a food processor or spice grinder. You want to process them until they are completely powdered. Then just mix the powder into your sugar to create the strawberry sugar mixture.
As the ganache sits in between the meringue cookies, the meringue will get softer and chewier as it sits. If you want the meringue cookies to stay crispy, fill them with the ganache right before serving.
For making the ganache, using a bittersweet chocolate bar is preferred. However, you can also use bittersweet chips if you can not get in the bar form.
I do not recommend using milk chocolate for the ganache. The amount of sugar in the milk chocolate is considerably more than a bar of bittersweet or dark chocolate and will make the cookies too sweet. There’s enough sugar in the meringue to quell the bitterness of the chocolate. So please for your blood sugar’s sake do not add more.