help with chocolate meringue...going runny

[cakedecorator1968]

Hi Everybody!

I've tried 3 times to make chocolate meringue for piped meringue shells but the meringue is failing on me.

I start with a nice swiss meringue then add cocoa to the bowl and whip about 10 seconds. After a few seconds the meringue goes runny and ends up way too loose to pipe.

Any suggestions on what is going wrong?

My approx. recipe:

8 oz whites

450 g sugar

cream of tartar

3 Tbsp Cocoa

Thank-you!

[nightscotsman]

The problem is cocoa, while having almost no fat, does have some fat, and fat as you know is the enemy of meringue. Instead of trying to whip it in, I would suggest sifting the cocoa with some powdered sugar and gently folding it in. There will still be some deflation, but it should still be pipeable.

[chiantiglace]

can't get too much clearer than that. For an experiment add the cocoa in and let the meringue whip for a couple of minutes, it will practially loose all its air.

Try it with almond meal too, I like to sift a little fine ground almond in with my cocoa to make cocoa almond meringue, aka "cocoa dacquoise.

[Sebastian]

You can try a defatted cocoa powder - they're pretty hard to find, but i believe there's a spanish company making it ... natra perhaps? defatted powders are literally fat free (well, almost - there may be up to 0.5% residual fat stuck away in there...)

[chiantiglace]

I bet it's not alkalized like a dutch processed powder though.

[Sebastian]

how much? 8-) i know alkalized defatted powders exist, or at least they did in the very recent past...