The Mayan chilli flavours give this hot chocolate a serious kick of Winter warmth. The meringue kisses ooze and goo like marshmallows once they hit the hot chocolate. You can keep these chocolate kisses to add to future hot chocolates or even wrap in cellophane and tie with a ribbon to give away to family and friends.
Makes: 50 kisses and 1 batch of hot chocolate
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
What You’ll Need:
For the hot chocolate:
- 1 red chilli
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 150g good dark chocolate
- 800mls full fat milk
- 5 cardamom pods
- 5 cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
- A hand full of dark brown sugar (to taste)
For the kisses:
- 150g egg whites (5 eggs)
- 300g caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons of dark good quality cocoa
What To Do:
For the kisses:
- Start by lining a large flat baking tray with baking paper.
- Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a deep roasting tray with baking paper, pour in caster sugar and put it in the oven for about 5 minutes. Heating the sugar helps to create a glossy, stable mixture.
- Meanwhile, crack the egg whites into a non- plastic bowl. Make sure your bowl and whisk are free from grease.
- At first whisk slowly allowing small stabilizing bubbles to form, then increase the speed until the egg whites form stiff peaks.
- The sugar should be ready to take out of the oven at this point. Turn your oven down to 100°C.
- While you whisk at full speed, very slowly, spoon by spoon, add the hot sugar to the meringue mixture. Once you have added all of the sugar, continue to whisk on full speed for about 5 minutes.
- Feel a bit of the mixture between your fingers, if you can still feel the gritty sugar keep whisking at full speed until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, stiff and glossy.
- Using 2 teaspoons of high quality 70% Cocoa powder, fold into your meringue mixture until just combined.
- Spoon mixture into your piping bag, cut the tip and start piping.
- Once you have piped out all your Chocolate kisses, dust the top of the meringues with the remaining cocoa and place in the oven for 35-45 minutes.
For the hot chocolate:
- Start by slicing your red chilli directly down the middle, keeping seeds
- Infuse the milk: Pour the milk into a medium sized saucepan. Add the sliced chilli, and all of your spices (Cardamom, Cloves, Cinnamon and Star Anise), the brown sugar and cocoa powder and slowly start to heat on the hob. Bring to a gentle simmer.
- Once the spiced milk is simmering, take off the heat and sieve into another pot to get rid of the spices and the chilli. Place back on a very low heat and add your dark chocolate.
- Stir until chocolate has melted then take off the heat. Taste to check if it needs more sugar.
- Pour your chocolate in while it’s hot and top with your beautiful meringue kisses!
Recipe courtesy of The Meringue Girls in partnership with Rangemaster