Meringue Mushrooms
- 2 egg whites
- 14 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 12 cup granulated sugar
- to taste cocoa
- to taste chocolate icing (Use a smidge from the yule log recipe.))
- Cover 2 cookie sheets with baking parchment paper, anchoring, if necessary with a dab of the meringue when it's ready.
- Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in small mixer bowl (I use my big Kitchen Aid bowl) until foamy.
- Beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy, about 5 minutes.
- Do not underbeat.
- Heat oven to 225 degrees.
- Fit decorators' tube or pastry bag with plain tip with 1/4" opening.
- Fill bag with meringue and fold top of bag to close.
- Anchor the paper to the cookie sheets with a couple dabs of meringue.
- Hold upright and pipe out about 55 mushroom caps, each 1 to 1-1/4 inches in diameter.
- Sift cocoa over caps.
- Now, this is important: Stick your forefinger in sugar and gently pat down the peak that's sticking up on all those caps!
- Bake until firm, 45-50 minutes.
- Remove from oven and immediately turn caps upside down and make an indentation in bottom of each cap.
- (I use a wood skewer or small knife tip to poke/carve a bit of a hole.)
- Brush excess cocoa from caps with a soft-bristled brush.
- Pipe about fifty-five 3/4" upright stems on second cookie sheet.
- They should have peaks which will fit into mushroom caps.
- Bake until firm 40-45 minutes.
- Remove from oven; cool.
- To assemble the mushrooms, pipe a small amount of frosting into the indentation of each mushroom cap; insert stem and stand to dry.
- Store mushrooms uncovered or loosely covered at room temperature.
- They'll keep a week or so.
- Use the mushrooms to decorate a yule log cake.
- Extra mushrooms can be packaged in -- a mushroom carton -- for a special treat.
egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar, cocoa, chocolate icing
Taken from www.food.com/recipe/meringue-mushrooms-5441 (may not work)