Meringue Mushrooms

Name: Meringue Mushrooms
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 55 pieces
Ingredients: 2 egg whites; 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1/2 cup granulated sugar; to taste cocoa; to taste chocolate icing (Use a smidge from the yule log recipe.))

Submitted by troyh

"Recipe By: Barb Schaller & Betty Crocker"

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Ready In:: 1hr 30mins
Ingredients:: 5
Yields:: 55 pieces

ingredients

2 egg whites
¹⁄₄ teaspoon cream of tartar
¹⁄₂ cup granulated sugar
to taste cocoa
to taste chocolate icing (Use a smidge from the yule log recipe.))

directions

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.