Vegan Chocolate Chip Meringues – A Childhood Favorite Recreated

Have you heard about the magic that is aquafaba?? If not, oh dear reader, you must stop everything and read this immediately. Seriously. It’s the wonder that is changing everything in the vegan baking world.

Bold words I know, but the magic that people are recreating with this one ingredient is incredible. Vanilla chai macarons with vanilla bean cream,  chocolate chip cookies and even vegan Lucky Charms!

So what IS aquafaba? Aside from my new favoritest thing ever? It’s so simple you’re not going to believe it.

Chickpea brine.

Yep.

Yes, I know it sounds terrible. But trust me. It’s amazing. It’s incredible what you can do with it! Just the water from a can of chickpeas, so you also probably have it in your kitchen on a pretty regular basis. No extra cost and amazing vegan teats – what could be better??

For me, the absolute magic is in recreating THE recipe from my childhood. The one I made at least once a month. The one my friends asked for for their Bar and Bat Mitzvah presents. I never thought I would be able to have them again, but using aquafaba recreates them absolutely perfectly. SO HAPPY.

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

A combination of my childhood recipe, and the instructions from the Vegan Meringue facebook page

• Liquid from one can of chickpeas (approximately 3/4 cup)
• 2/3 C white sugar
• 1 C chocolate chips (or more, depending on your preference for chip:cookie ratio!
• 1/8 t salt
• 1/4 t cream of tartar
• 1/2 t vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 250.
2. Beat the chickpea liquid (aquafaba) with salt and cream of tartar until stiff but not dry. This means you should have peaks that hold their shape when you turned on their side or upside down.
3. Gradually beat in the sugar, checking for any grittiness, and beating until none remains.
4. Fold in vanilla and chocolate chips.
5. Drop from spoon onto wax paper covered cookie sheets into ~1 1/2 inch round blobs. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until very light brown.  You want them to be totally dry, with no outside stickiness remaining.
6. To remove cookies from sheet, peel wax paper from sheet immediately, and gently pull off cookies.
7. Let cool on a cooling rack to room temperature, and then store in an air tight container.
8. Enjoy!!