Peanut Butter Chocolate Meringue Sandwiches
April 30, 2008
I’m going to do something a little unconventional here, maybe even a little frightening. I’m promoting a healthy recipe on The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery. The concept is scary for me too, but we can get through this together. And really once you get to reading the recipe you will likely find yourself hungry, not skeptical.
I thought it would be fair to plug my other favorite magazine, after spotlighting Everyday Food yesterday. Cooking Light was my first magazine subscription of any kind, let alone of food. I thought I might get bored of it, and thought that “light” recipes had the potential to be a little scary, but three years later I still get a bit giddy when an issue shows up in my mail box.
Cooking Light reuses some tricks to lighten recipes, some of which are present in this one. It uses fluffed up egg-whites which are healthier than using the whole egg and add air and volume to the batter. They also use some reduced-fat peanut butter and fat-free milk. But what I like about them is that not all of their ingredients are scary healthy. They still have some good old fashioned sugar in there as well as unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder. The mag also provides you with some nutritional facts so you can enjoy one of these cookies knowing that you’ve only taken in 70 calories instead of 300, or whatever the norm is for an indulgent snack.
(Small tangent: I also noticed that Starbucks started posting the calories in their sweets right on their individual nametags. While I’m not sure if it’s good for their business since it encouraged me to pass up a 450 calorie Pecan Magic Bar, I appreciated it, nonetheless.)
These peanut butter chocolate meringues don’t sound like one of their fastest recipes, but they certainly sound good. They have a few of my favorite qualities in a dessert. Quality #1: They are meringues. I know there are some people out there who may not have tried meringues, but you should. They are a pretty satisfying snack while being low in calories. Trader Joes carries a nice variety of them, if you’re curious. Quality #2: They have chocolate. Quality #3: They have peanut butter. If you came to this website and couldn’t figure out what #2 & 3 were going to be, you are hereby fired as a reader of this blog.
Oh, who am I kidding… I could never fire you! Enjoy this recipe from Cooking Light.
Yields 15 cookie sandwiches (70 calories each)
Ingredients
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup reduced-fat peanut butter
2 1/2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp fat-free milk
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 225. Place the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 45 seconds or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool completely.
2. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper; secure with masking tape. Sift together 1/3 cup powdered sugar and cocoa.
3. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high, and gradually add granulated sugar and then cocoa mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Add 1/2 cup of egg white mixture to melted chocolate; beat just until blended. Add chocolate mixture to remaining egg white mixture, and beat just until blended.
4. Drop 30 mounds onto prepared baking sheet. Bake at 225º for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn oven off; cool meringues in closed oven 1 1/2 hours or until dry. Carefully remove meringues from paper.
5. Combine peanut butter and remaining ingredients, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter mixture onto flat sides of 15 meringues, and top with remaining meringues.