In a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed, beat the
egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and increase the speed until
soft peaks form. Start adding the sugar slowly. Beat until glossy stiff peaks
form.
Place the meringue in a large zip-lock bag and push the
mixture toward one corner, folding the other corner over, then twisting,
allowing you to control the meringue. Cut off just the very tip of the exposed
corner so the meringue can exit the bag. Then try it out by dotting four small
beads of meringue at the corners of a cookie sheet. Set a sheet of parchment
paper over the top; the meringue beads will provide a bond.
Make the mushroom caps by holding the bag over the parchment
paper and push until a 1-inch mound of meringue forms. Wet the tip of your
finger with water and gently round off any peaks to make a smooth surface.
For mushroom stems, form peaks on smaller mounds of meringue
by pulling the bag up and away from the surface as you push.
Bake them in a 200° oven for an hour, and then turn oven
temperature down to 175 and leave them until they’re completely dry to the
touch.
To construct "mushrooms":
Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe dish in the microwave for about one
minute or until melted. Once cool, you can coat the bottom of the mushroom caps
with dark chocolate, let them set, and then coat them again with white
chocolate. Once the white chocolate is set, you can scratch in the mushroom
gills using a toothpick, and attach the stem using a little more white
chocolate.
Or,
if not coating the bottom of the mushroom caps, make a hole smaller than a pea
in the bottom of a mushroom cap with a toothpick or skewer. Dip the tip of the
stem in the melted chocolate and press into the hole in the cap. Allow the
chocolate "glue" to harden (it only takes a minute). Place the mushroom upright
on its stem and dust the cap lightly with cocoa powder.
