Although they need some effort and patience, these meringue mushrooms are beautiful. They are highly coveted as Christmas presents! A pastry bag with a simple tip is required. If you can find some green plastic fruit baskets from the summer, those would look fantastic with these mushrooms.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 45 mins |
| Servings: | 36 |
| Yield: | 36 mushrooms |
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 ounces chocolate confectioners’ coating
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- Beat egg whites in a large glass or metal bowl with an electric mixer until foamy. Add vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt.
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- Continue whipping until soft peaks form. Gradually sprinkle in sugar so that it does not sink to the bottom and continue whipping until meringue holds stiff shiny peaks. Place a round tip into a pastry bag and fill the bag halfway with meringue.
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- To pipe mushroom caps, squeeze out round mounds of meringue onto one of the prepared cookie sheets. Pull the bag off to the side to avoid making peaks on the top. Refill the bag with meringue as needed.
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- To pipe mushroom stems, press out a tiny bit of meringue onto the remaining cookie sheet, then pull the bag straight up. They should resemble candy kisses. Do not worry about making all of the pieces exactly the same. The mushrooms will look more natural if the pieces are different sizes.
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- Dust mushroom caps lightly with cocoa using a small sifter or strainer.
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- Bake in the preheated oven until meringues are dry enough to easily remove from the cookie sheets, about 1 hour. Set aside to cool completely.
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- Melt coating chocolate in a metal bowl over simmering water or in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring occasionally until smooth.
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- Rotate the tip of a paring knife in the bottom of a mushroom cap to create a small hole. Spread chocolate over the bottom of the cap. Dip the tip of a stem in chocolate and press lightly into the hole.
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- When chocolate sets, the cap and stem will hold together. Repeat with remaining meringues. Store at room temperature in a dry place or tin.
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- As with other meringue recipes, these should only be made on a dry day.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 41 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 8 g |
| Cholesterol | 1 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 23 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 1 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Cute, easy, tasty!
They look and taste great!!
I made these and took them to a Halloween party. I had people not try them at first because they thought they were real mushrooms! They looked (and tasted) soooo good!
I made these for my yule log. People thought that they were real mushrooms. Easy peasy! I would only note that the rosemary I used as a garnish infused the meringue a bit but they still tasted great!
Wow! First time and they came out fantastic! Can’t wait to decorate my Buche de Noel! Perfect recipe!
I followed the recipe almost exactly and got very good results. The only change I made was leaving them in the oven an extra 15 minutes and then letting them sit in the oven as it cooled down. I have very limited experience with a pastry bag, but I was able to pull this off.
This is such a cool recipe! So realistic and yummy. My family loved them. I’m making a second batch right now! Didn’t make any changes, the recipe is just right!
These are a delicious treat! Great for gifting in produce baskets or to adorn a woodland cake. It stayed in the exact shape I piped it, no settling or growing, even after I shaped some with a wet finger. Also I used white chocolate just stick the caps and stems together, as white gills were mostly what I saw on Google images. Thanks for the great recipe and idea! I’ll definitely be making them again.
Will definitely make this again! Super cute, not difficult, and fun to assemble!
Sprinkling the cocoa on before you bake them was the key to realism. They looked so real, my dad refused to try one even after I told him they were candy! Used them on a buche de noel.
I made these to garnish my Buche de Noel. They looked very realistic and were delicious as well. Fun to make.
This is such a simple recipe, and even though it takes time to complete, it isn’t complicated. Since I first made it 3 years ago, I am no longer allowed at Christmas, or Thanksgiving now too, unless I bring these mushrooms. Even at Summer BBq’s, my family is now insisting that I bring them. They are wonderful.
Thank you for this recipe. They were so easy to make and look real.
The cooking time for this recipe is way off. 1 hour at 225 leaves you with a chewy center (raw eggwhite) It takes 2 hours for the cookies to have the crisp dry texture they are meant to have.
We use these to decorate our yule log. They look so realistic!
Very easy to make and look perfect!!,
I made these for my Mycological club party — as you can imagine, they were a hit! These are fairly simple to make if you let go of trying to make things uniform 🙂
These tuned out wonderfully. My guests loved them for our woodland themed 1st birthday party.
Works wonderfully! Are used this with the yule log and it works great!
easy peasy lemon squeezy….. this is such an easy recipe, if you mess it up, it really is your own fault. Follow the directions and practice, they turn out perfectly. Also, if you use parchment or a silpat it’s easy to remove the mushroom pieces.
Easy to make but when decorating a Yule log do it last minute since the moisture in the icing will affect the stems of the mushrooms. Everyone loved them and one guest thought they were real mushrooms.