Little Chocolate Meringue Cookies. Little, but Good!

Where or how my obsession and love for meringue- anything came into existence is a great question. I suppose since this and this, well, it's been a love-love relationship. Cravings for it at random. Satisfaction always. And these cookies are just perfect for the slightest chocolate hankering and since they're made with egg whites (let's negate the sugar factor from this next sentence), they are eaten one by one without a trace of guilt.

They can be compared to a really good German loaf of bread: hard on the outside, soft inside. Two worlds of textures collide into a single bite. Do you get what I mean? Brilliant!

Little Chocolate Meringue Cookies

{Martha Stewart}

4 large egg whites at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 pinch cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ cup cocoa powder

Fill medium saucepan one quarter full with water. Set the saucepan over medium heat, and bring water to a simmer. Preheat oven to 175 (yes, that is not a typo). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of electric mixer, and place over saucepan. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 3 1/2 minutes. Test by rubbing between your fingers.

Transfer bowl to electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and whip, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix until combined. Fold in cocoa. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a tip of your choice; pipe out cookies in small coils or desired shapes onto baking sheet. Sift remaining cocoa over cookies; bake until cookies lift off parchment easily, about 2 hours.