A spare egg white

The Viennese Biscuits I posted about previously resulted in a spare egg white which gave me an excellent excuse to bake the following recipe. This is one of my all-time favourite recipes and ranks very highly on my effort/reward scale! (I will try and elaborate on this at a later date). In short, they are ridiculously easy to make and taste fantastic.

Forgotten Cookies

(by David Oppedisano writing in Good Food Magazine)

2 large egg whites

120g (4 1/2 oz) golden caster sugar

120g (4 1/2 oz) pecan nuts, roughly chopped

150g (5oz) dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Line two baking sheets with foil.

2) In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and dry. Gradually whisk in the sugar to make a thick and glossy meringue. Gently fold in the nuts, chocolate and vanilla.

3) Spoon heaped teaspoonfuls on to the baking sheets. These don't tend to spread a great deal so you don't need to leave huge gaps.

4) Put the sheets in the oven, then turn it off and leave the cookies for at least 3 hours, overnight, or until the oven is cold.

5) Carefully peel the cookies from the foil and store in an airtight container.