Ever since I made the meringues with chickpea brine I’ve been wanting to experiment with different sugars. I’m not anti-sugar in the slightest but I felt like the taste of the meringues could be improved by the flavour of the sweetener. I’m a huge fan of maple syrup so I wanted to see if it would work in place of the icing sugar! It does!

I’ve dipped these in chocolate – the caramelised maple meringue and the dark chocolate reminds me a lot of Cadbury’s Crunchy Bars – minus the dairy.

INGREDIENTS

For the maple meringues

Chickpea brine drained from 1 can of chickpeas – approximately 1 cup of liquid

3/4 Grade B Maple Syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

For the chocolate dipping

50g dark chocolate (70%)

1 tsp coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 200f. Line two baking trays with parchment paper or silpat mats. First reduce the chickpea brine. Pour it into a saucepan and boil for 2-3 minutes until reduced 2/3 of a cup. Set aside to cool for at least ten minutes. Once the brine is cool, add it to the stand mixer and beat on high until foamy. Once soft peaks form, add the cream of tartar. Beat for 3 minutes. Start adding the maple syrup in 1/4 cup increments, pouring slowly and beating until fully incorporated. The meringue will form stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla bean paste. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the meringue into medium sized rounds. Repeat until there is no more space on the trays. Bake the meringues in the oven for 2 hours. Remove the trays from the oven and allow the meringues to cool for 20 minutes. Whilst the meringues are cooling, prepare the chocolate dip. In a heat proof bowl over a pan of boiling water, melt the chocolate and coconut oil, stirring to incorporate. Once the meringues are cooled, carefully peel them off the paper and dip half of each into the chocolate mixture. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

I had some extra meringue mixture leftover so I mixed it up with some raw cacao powder and drizzled through some of the chocolate dip and froze it! Chocolate ice cream!