Chocolate Dipped Swiss Meringue Kisses

Chocolate dipped Swiss meringue kisses served in a plate

Light, crunchy on the outside, soft and marshmallowy on the inside, with a thin layer of dark chocolate – heavenly sweet Swiss meringue kisses.

Usually, I’m not a fan of overly sweet desserts, but meringues are my guilty pleasure. They are amazing on their own, but that extra layer of dark chocolate balances the sweetness and makes them… mmm, simply wonderful.

Swiss meringue

Swiss meringue is my favorite type of meringue, so there’s no surprise I chose this method for these cookies. The Swiss method calls for heating egg whites with sugar until all the sugar dissolves before beating. Meringue made this way is very silky, marshmallowy, stable, and quite forgiving. If you usually struggle with uneven meringue texture with some grainy sugar granules, I am sure you will also love Swiss meringue.

Chocolate dipped Swiss meringue kisses

Tips for making Swiss meringue kisses

Weigh your egg whites

Eggs differ in size. Medium-sized eggs might be quite different in different parts of the world. Correct egg white-sugar ratio is essential for a proper meringue texture and this ratio is not based on S, M, or L egg size. It’s based on weight, so weigh your egg whites.

Meringue has to be totally and absolutely fat-free

Firstly, make sure that everything that will be touching the meringue (bowl, spatula, whisk attachment) is perfectly clean and grease-free. Even a small amount of fat can prevent denaturing of proteins in egg white and that results in a runny meringue. Wipe everything with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice for insurance.

Do not use a plastic bowl, because it’s super difficult to get the grease cleaned off of plastic. Grease = fat, fat is bad for meringue. Glass and metal bowls are both good, but metal works best for Swiss meringue, as it’s also heatproof.

Egg whites separate easily from yolks when they are cold, so do it at once after taking eggs out of the fridge. It’s less likely that you end up with some yolk in the meringue this way. Yolk contains fat and as I mentioned twice already, you want zero fat in your meringue.

Beat long enough

Beat the meringue for a looong time, 10 minutes at least, but most likely it will take even longer. Don’t be afraid to overwhip. No offense, but I don’t think you have so much patience. It’s truly hard to overbeat a meringue with such an amount of sugar, it’s even harder to overbeat a Swiss meringue.

Get to know the right texture

This meringue is not very fluffy, it’s denser than French or Italian, so don’t be alarmed when you don’t see a huge volume change. The final texture is very silky with bending and extending peaks, it’s like a melted marshmallow, but it’s not runny, it holds its shape and pipes like heaven.

Piping Swiss meringue kisses
Close up of just piped Swiss meringue kisses
Close up of a soft interior of a Swiss meringue kiss

Test your baking time for soft interiors

How do you achieve those soft marshmallowy interiors of meringue kisses? You might have read various tips and tricks from temperature shock to adding cornstarch. But the secret is very simple, it’s baking time. The soft interior is underbaked meringue and meringue, like anything else, does not bake equally all at once. Heat slowly travels from the outside to the inside (it’s called diffusion of heat). So you will get a soft interior by baking just long enough and not too long.

The time in your oven might be different than in mine. Or you might pipe smaller or bigger meringues. Don’t be afraid to carefully open the oven and test one of the kisses. First of all, it has to peel off the parchment paper easily, secondly, simply taste it and decide if you are happy with the softness of the interior and adjust the baking time accordingly. Keep in mind, that meringues will get a bit drier while cooling.

A small dish of melted chocolate and Swiss meringue kisses served in a plate and some
Dipping a Swiss meringue kiss into melted chocolate
Dipping a Swiss meringue kiss into melted chocolate
Close up of chocolate dipped Swiss meringue kisses

Chocolate Dipped Swiss Meringue Kisses

Chocolate dipped Swiss meringue kisses served in a plate

Light, crunchy on the outside, soft and marshmallowy on the inside, with a thin layer of dark chocolate – heavenly sweet Swiss meringue kisses.

  • Prep Time30 min
  • Bake / Cook Time1 hr
  • Total Time1 hr 30 min
  • Yield~35 cookies

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake Layers

  • 100 g / 3.5 oz egg whites (~3 medium egg whites)
  • 180 g / 6.3 oz granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1,5 tsp lemon juice
  • 100 g / 3.5 oz dark chocolate (70%)

Directions

1

Wipe the metal bowl, the whisk attachment, and the spatula (everything that will be touching the meringue) with some vinegar or lemon juice.

2

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3

Combine egg whites, sugar, and lemon juice in the metal bowl. Boil some water in a saucepan, then reduce the heat to medium to keep the water steaming but not bubbling vigorously. Put the bowl with egg whites on top of the saucepan with steaming water making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.

Putting a metal a bowl on a top of a saucepan with steaming water

4

Heat the mixture, stirring with a spatula or a spoon (do not whisk yet), until the sugar fully dissolves and the mixture gets white and opaque. Rub a small amount of the egg whites between your fingers to check if there are no sugar granules left. The mixture should feel very warm to the touch, but not as hot as you would burn yourself (50-60°C / 120-140°F).

Checking if sugar has melted

5

Remove the egg whites from the heat and start beating them immediately at high speed with a handheld or stand mixer. Beat until the bottom of the bowl feels cool to the touch, the meringue is glossy and holds its shape. The very peaks will be bending and extending, and the texture will remind a melted marshmallow. Don’t expect perfectly stiff peaks in this case, but meringue should not be runny. Beating will take at least 10 minutes, but the exact time will depend on your mixer, the temperature, and the humidity of your kitchen. Add vanilla extract just before the end.

Desired meringue stiffness

6

Preheat the oven to 90°C / 195°F (I turn a fan on).

7

Transfer the meringue to a piping bag and pipe ~4 cm / 1,5-inch diameter meringue kisses onto a baking sheet. The peaks will most likely bend, but if you don’t like it, you can remove the bends by touching them lightly with your finger.

Just piped Swiss meringue kisses on a baking sheet

8

Bake the meringues for 1 hour. They are done when you can easily lift them off a baking paper. If the bottoms are still sticky, bake a little longer. Leave meringue kisses to cool in the oven for at least an hour or until they have cooled completely.

9

Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a bowl. Boil some water in a saucepan, then reduce the heat to medium to keep the water steaming but not bubbling vigorously. Put the bowl with chocolate on top of the saucepan with steaming water making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water. Stir all the time until ¾ of the chocolate is melted, then remove from the steam and continue stirring until all the chocolate melts.

10

Dip the bottom of the meringue kisses into melted chocolate and transfer them onto parchment paper. Let them sit at room temperature till the chocolate solidifies.

Dipping a Swiss meringue kiss into melted chocolate

11

Keep the meringue kisses in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

notes

  • The exact temperature of the egg whites before beating is not important in this case. We will bake the meringue, so pasteurizing egg whites before that is not a must. The most important part is melting all the sugar granules.
  • When baking meringues I turn the fan in my oven on. I tried different programs and the one with fan on seems to work best for me, but keep in mind that your oven is different. If your meringues tend to crack, try a different program next time.
  • Be careful not to overheat the chocolate. Removing it from the heat before all of it melts helps to control the temperature.
  • It might be tempting to refrigerate chocolate-dipped meringue kisses to make chocolate solidify quicker. Don’t do that. It’s very humid in the fridge, meringues will absorb the moisture and get soft and chewy.
Dipping a Swiss meringue kiss into melted chocolate
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