Hazelnut Meringues with Drizzled Chocolate

I never really thought about making meringues before, I've made lemon meringue pie and things involving meringue but I never thought about making them to eat but this will definitely not be the last time. Give me a second to just drool over the flavour of hazelnut.... okay I'm good.

I am not the neatest person when it comes to food preparation, I always say I'm a little slap dash, I have the precision and creative ability in me to potentially make something look like it rolled out of a French patisserie with a gold halo surrounding it but I don't always have the patients and I'm much more interested in the flavours and getting to test it out after I'm done. I made these while a friend was over, mostly on purpose because although she barely bakes she loves piping, and me? depending on my mood I might just slap it on a tray and shove it in the oven....lovingly though. I'll just put a disclaimer here: be aware of piping these with a plain nozzle how you would typically ice a cupcake which is 50% icing, our first few attempts looked a little bit like a tray full of poop's, I suppose this disclaimer is also useful if you want your meringues to look like poo's.

Enough poo talk, these meringues are crunchy and chewy and the hazelnut, did I mention the hazelnut? If you think "ehh I'll just buy them" you need to make them anyway, once you've made them you'll be kicking yourself because you haven't done it till now, all those years with mediocre meringues that you'll never get back. I mainly made these to put in eton mess but with the leftovers we ate them with greek yogurt and fruit, all I can say is TASTE SENSATION and strawberries make everything taste better.

Ingredients 
3 large egg whites
175g/ 3/4 cup caster sugar
50g/ 1/2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts
50g/ 1/3 cup dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 120C/ /Gas 1/2, line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.

Place the egg white in a large clean bowl and whisk until stiff but not dry. Add the sugar a teaspoon at a time, whisking well after each addition until all the sugar has been added. The meringue mixture should be stiff and glossy, then gently fold in the hazelnuts.

Carefully spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the meringue onto a baking sheet. I used a plain nozzle that was probably about half an inch, and my meringues were about 3 - 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

Bake in a preheated oven for 2 - 2 1/2 hours or until they are a creamy colour and can be lifted easily from the baking paper without sticking. Turn off the oven and leave the door ajar until the meringues are cold.

Once the meringues are out the oven melt the dark chocolate, drizzle over the top and leave to set. Serve with Greek yogurt and fruit or use these to make eton mess.