[ Equipment: dehydrator. For more information about the terminology in this recipe, see Low Temperature Baking: A Journey of 3 Paths ].
These crisp and lighter-than-air cookies taste reminiscently of an Almond Joy candy bar, wispy flavors of chocolate, almonds and coconut. Like French macarons (same basic ingredients but in different proportions and formed with different technique), these cookies dissolve quickly in the mouth, briefly concentrating the flavors on the tongue before vanishing to a trace.
They are one of a series of meringue cookies, from my experiments with dehydrated meringue as a raw food. Although dehydrated raw meringue qualifies as a raw food with invaluable properties for raw cuisine, it's rarely seen in raw recipes, perhaps because many raw foodies are also vegan or no-eggs vegetarians or perhaps because unpasteurized egg whites pose a bacterial contamination risk (though contamination is far more likely in the yolk than in the white). From an LTB point of view, standard meringue cookies are already baked in a cool oven at 250°F, so warm air baking them in a dehydrator is sort of fringe of the fringe.
Yet, dehydrated raw meringues have a different qualities than slow-baked meringues. They crumble and dissolve almost as soon as they touch the tongue, whereas the slow-baked ones are crunchier with some browning on the surface. Unfortunately, raw meringues have a shorter shelf life.
This recipe describes 2 ways to prepare the meringue for dehydration. The first way is simple raw meringue that doesn't contact any heat source until it goes to the dehydrator. The second is a type of Swiss meringue, where the egg whites are partially cooked over hot water as they are whipped. Dehydrated Swiss meringue has a texture closer to a slow-baked meringue, but dehydrating the cookies preserves the raw flavors of the other ingredients. While raw meringue cookies stored in an air tight container will last for 1 to 2 weeks only, Swiss meringue cookies will keep for about a month.
The lemon or lime juice is for stabilizing the meringue and brightens the flavor of the cookies with citrus. Cream of tartar stabilizes the eggs whites as well as lemon or lime juice, but does not have the same taste. Do NOT omit this ingredient. Meringue that hasn't been stabilized will separate during dehydration, and the liquid that collects under the cookies will dry and glue the cookies to the drying sheet.
The meringue is only mildly sweet so as to emphasize the chocolate, almond and coconut flavors. If the cookies will not be fully raw, I recommend toasting half of the almond meal (very lightly sprayed with vegetable oil) in a 250°F oven for about an hour to intensify the nutty flavor. To enhance the sweetness and layer flavor without substantially increasing the calorie tally, sprinkle the top of the cookies with a little vanilla sugar or plain sugar before dehydrating.
As they dehydrate, the cookies will lose about 10% of their size. I piped the batter free-hand, and the cookies have an uneven, rustic look. For cookies with a neater appearance, pipe the batter into a greased 2-inch cookie cutter as a mold.
Makes 1 dozen cookies
- 30 calories per cookie
- Oven Temperature: 115-120°F/46-49°C in a dehydrator
- 1 egg white
- pinch of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon or lime juice or cream of tartar
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon almond meal or almond flour (1/2 raw and 1/2 toasted if desired, see text)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped baker's coconut
- 1/8 cup mini chocolate chips or finely chopped cocoa nibs
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar or vanilla sugar for sprinkling (optional)
1. Combine almond flour and coconut in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium metal bowl, beat egg white, lemon/lime juice and salt until frothy.
3. Add sugar and beat until foamy.
4. This step makes either a raw meringue or a Swiss meringue. See the text above for more information about these types of meringue.
To make raw meringue, continue beating the egg white on high speed until stiff peaks form.
To make a Swiss meringue, heat a saucepan of water to simmering and turn off heat. Place bowl over saucepan and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Continue mixing for another 2 minutes. Mixture will be thick and shiny and will mound in the beater. Remove bowl from saucepan.
5. Fold in almond flour-coconut mixture.
6. Cut off one bottom corner of a plastic food bag, leaving a 1/2-inch opening. Fill the bag with the batter, push out any air in the bag and squeeze batter to the clipped corner.
The following steps apply to my Presto Chango dehydrator fitted with a 9-inch diameter pan as a heat distributor and tray support. Follow manufacturer's instructions if drying in a commercial dehydrator.
7. Cut out a 8-1/2 inch circle of aluminum foil or parchment paper or wax paper as a drying sheet. Foil and parchment paper are preferable, because the cookies may stick steadfast to wax paper. Turn an 8-inch cake pan upside down as a pedestal. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the surface of the pan and center the drying sheet on it. Press down and smooth out any wrinkles. The water will act as a temporary glue. Liberally grease the surface of the drying sheet.
8. Pipe out batter onto the drying sheet in spirals from the inside out to form a dozen cookies, each about 2 inches in diameter.
9. Sprinkle each cookie with mini chocolate chips. Very lightly, press any loose chips into the batter. If desired, sprinkle the cookies with sugar or vanilla sugar (see text).
10. Lift the edge of the foil or paper disk and slide drying platform (splatter screen) underneath. Put the drying platform back into the dehydrator and position so that the drying sheet is centered over the heat distributor (cake pan).
11. Finish assembling dehydrator. If the batter is a Swiss meringue, dehydrate the cookies for about 6 hours at 115-120°F. Raw meringue has a higher moisture content and should be dried for about 8 hours. When done, the surface of the cookies will be dry, although they may bend a bit when pulled off the drying sheet.
12. Let the cookies cool for an hour or longer before separating them from the drying sheet. The cooling is important, because warm meringue will stick more than cold meringue. If the chocolate chips are too soft, put cookies in a single layer in a plastic container with an airtight lid and refrigerate for a few minutes until the chips are solid again. The lid must be tight or the cookies will absorb moisture in the fridge or freezer.
13. Serve or store the cookies in an airtight container.
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