Chocolate Orange Mini Meringues

These are delicious little desserts and can be made with bought meringues to save time.

Makes approx. 30 mini meringues

Ingredients

For the Meringues

3 large Egg Whites

175g Caster Sugar

For the Topping

200g Cream Cheese

Fine zest of an Orange

Juice of half an Orange

200g Double Cream

4 tablespoons Icing Sugar

100g Dark Chocolate

• Preheat the oven to 150C (fan) and line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof/baking paper.  If you want to make neat meringue circles draw them on the underside of the paper for you to use as a guide when piping.
• In a large, clean bowl whisk the egg whites until frothy then gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk until it is glossy and holds peaks.
• Pipe onto the lined tins in small circles, piping an extra layer around the outside to form mini nests.  When all piped, put the trays into the preheated oven then immediately reduce the temperature to 125C.  Bake for 30-35 minutes then turn off the oven and leave the meringues in to go completely cold.  Store the meringues in an airtight container until needed.
• To make the filling, mix the cream cheese with the orange zest and juice until smooth.  Whip the cream and the icing sugar in another bowl until thick but not stiff then fold this into the cream cheese mixture.
• To assemble these little lovelies, pipe or spoon the orange cream onto the meringues then trickle with melted dark chocolate (I pipe it over in a zigzag motion using a narrow piping nozzle) and leave for an hour to set.  Serve within two hours of making.