Chocolate Meringue Cookies

[Baked on 9 Mar 2013]
I still had some egg whites leftover from my CNY baking, and was wondering how to use it. Then I saw a post on Chocolate Meringue Cookies from Joy of Baking in FB, and decided to bake it. As discussed in the FB comments, we were told not to reduce the sugar as it will affect the crispiness of the cookies. I reduce it from 200g to 160g anyway. I found that the cookies were able to stay crisp. However, I realised that the baking time for me was too short as the cookies wasn't able to pull away from the parchment paper easily. I had difficulties separating them to. Having said that, the cookies were really nice. It had a crisp outer and a very chewy inner.

Recipe for Chocolate Meringue Cookies, adapted from Joy of Baking.
Makes approx. 50 1" cookies

Ingredients:
100g Egg whites (approx. 3 eggs)
160g Caster sugar
15g Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 130C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. 
2. Put the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugar has melted and is warm to the touch (about 2-5 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and wipe the bottom of the bowl to remove any condensation.
5. Using an electric whisk, beat on high speed until the meringue is stiff with glossy peaks and cool to the touch.
6. Sift the cocoa powder over the meringue and with a large spatula, gently fold the cocoa powder into the meringue. Mix well.
7. Before placing the cookies on the parchment paper, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding.
8. With piping bag and a star nozzle, pipe the meringues on your prepared baking tray.
9. Sift a little more cocoa powder over the meringues.
10. As soon as you put the meringues into the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 100C and bake the meringues for approximately 90mins (1.5hrs), or until the meringues have a crisp outside crust and release easily from the parchment paper. (If you break one open, the inside will be soft and marshmallowy. The longer you bake the Meringues, the firmer they will be inside.)
11. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. The meringues can be covered and stored at room temperature for 2-3 days (depending on humidity).