Chocolate and cinnamon suspiros

It’s been a month since I last brought you anything chocolate – cocoa doesn’t count – and hope you like these meringues as much as Jessica and I did. :)

I wasn’t really in the mood for meringues but needed to do something with my frozen egg whites (which seem to be suffering from the Gremlin curse, too); what convinced me here was the addition of chocolate and cinnamon.

Chocolate and cinnamon suspiros
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

120g egg whites (about 3)
pinch of salt
120g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
120g pure icing sugar, sifted
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
Dutch-process cocoa, to serve

Preheat oven to 120°C/248°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt in an electric mixer (medium-high speed) until soft peaks form (4-5 minutes), add caster sugar in a thin steady stream, whisking continuously until stiff and glossy, then whisk in vanilla seeds and cinnamon. Fold in icing sugar, then chocolate and spoon mixture into 5cm-diameter mounds on prepared sheets. Bake until dry and lightly colored (2-3 hours – that will depend on how big the suspiros are). Turn off oven, cool in oven for 1 hour, then transfer to a wire rack, dust with cocoa and serve. Suspiros will keep, stored in an airtight container, for about a week.

Serves 10 – I halved the recipe above and got 5 very large suspiros