Meringues

My darling fiance's mother gave us a KitchenAid mixer as an early (and greatly appreciated) wedding gift. I wanted to try it out today, so I decided to make meringues! I've never actually had meringues (although I love lemon meringue and key lime pie), but I thought they'd be the perfect thing to make in my mixer since they are so difficult to make by hand. Luckily, they turned out to be simple and delicious with the help of my mixer.
I used a recipe posted by Jenna at Eat Live Run, and added mini dark chocolate chips because someone in her comments suggested doing so. I'm glad I did because the rich chocolate was the perfect counterpoint to the airy sweetness of the sweetened egg whites.
Basically, I just mixed 3 egg whites, 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar, and 3/4 of a cup of sugar until the egg whites formed stiff glossy peaks, then folded in 1/2 a cup of mini-chocolate chips. I used two spoons to plop little meringue clouds onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper and baked them at 200 F for nearly two hours. Mine took longer than Jenna's recipe called for and I think it's because mine were bigger meringue blobs rather than the little meringue kisses she made- so adjust your time according to the size of your meringue. Just don't open the oven for a least an hour if you don't want your meringues to crack!
When the meringues were done, they were hard on the outside, and they got slightly harder as they cooled. The insides were spongy and full of air. (and chocolate!) They're so good that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to take them to work to share!

Hello, Gorgeous

Egg whites and cream of tartar

Let's get this party started!

Something's Happening!Wow! All that delicious fluff from 3 little egg whites!

Adding Chocolate Chips
Happy Little Clouds
The finished meringues. I ate two of them right after I took this picture!

What's your favorite dessert?