Meringues with an Enjoyable Chocolate Surprise

Lately, Pinterest has become my go-to source for all sorts of inspiration - from organizing my kitchen to planning the lunch and dessert for my brother's wedding shower to quotes that make me giggle and general crafty diy to tempting food.  When I stumbled upon these Raspberry Meringues, I was in love.  They were so beautifully crafted.  But even more tantalizing was the piece of chocolate inside.  How clever!

Darla at Bakingdom wrote a wonderful recipe for the meringues - if you don't have a stand-by favorite, be sure to check hers out!  Simply line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, add a piece of chocolate, and pipe out a kiss on top!  Couldn't be easier.

To make mine dairy free, I used some of Enjoy Life's semi-sweet chocolate Mega Chunks the company recently sent me.  I am not one to keep it small when creating desserts, and meringues are no exception.  The larger size of the chocolate chunks was perfect for my meringues formed with the 1M decorating tip from Wilton.  My biggest problem was keeping the chocolate on the cookie sheet - I unfortunately kept observing the "one for the recipe, two for my belly" rule...  I have had my fair share of semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips and Enjoy Life's are some of the best.  Knowing that they are also gluten and dairy free (and top 8 allergen free and vegan and all that good stuff) is especially comforting - I have not found any other chocolate chip labeled even dairy free.  Who knows what the other companies do to make sure that pesky milk chocolate is not co-mingling with my semi-sweet or dark chocolate!  It is always a gamble with other chips, well, they don't list that milk is an ingredient so I should be okay, right?  Right?  *crickets*

Each bite into these meringues were delicious.  Not only did I get the usual egg/sugar mixture, but the addition of the chocolate was such a sweet surprise.  I never would have thought to combine pieces of chocolate into my meringues, but I'm glad I did!  This is an excellent recipe with a superior piece of Enjoy Life chocolate waiting inside.  This recipe is a keeper - it may even make an appearance at my brother's upcoming wedding shower - their colors are brown and pink!  I'll just need to get my hands on some raspberry extract before then...

Pour open bag of Enjoy Life Mega Chunks. Consume a few.

 Evenly space out the chocolate chips.

 Separate the egg yolks from egg whites.

 Put your Kitchen Aid to work! 

(Not pictured because this part got a little too messy) Add the 1M tip to a piping bag.  Add the meringue.  Make beautiful drops directly on the chocolate. 

Impatiently wait for the meringues to cook (1 hour 40 minutes) before quickly photographing them before gobbling them up.

If you have leftover chocolate (and didn't eat most of the bag like I did...sometimes I have no shame...), the mega chunks are great as a dairy-free ganache!  1 part soy milk, 2.5 parts chocolate heated up in a pot over low heat. Perfect for drizzling on fruit!