Meringue Mushrooms

I had some trouble making nice mushroom 'domes' with my pastry bag. I'll have to work on that next time. Also, baking any higher than 275 degrees F will make the meringues too brown- I prefer a whiter looking mushroom. So I used my toaster-oven for a gentler baking cycle.

Another recipe I saw suggests baking at 350 degrees F for the first 5 minutes, then turning the temperature down to 250 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Meringue Mushrooms

- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- chocolate
- dark cocoa powder

1. Beat egg whites and sugar until they form stiff peaks.
2. Fill pastry bag with meringue mixture, and pipe stems and mushroom caps.
3. Bake at 275 degrees F in toaster oven for ~15-20 minutes. Turn off heat, let cool 15-20 minutes in oven.
   
4. Melt chocolate, paint mushroom cap bottoms with chocolate.
   
5. Push stems into caps.
6. Dust with cocoa powder.

They turned out ok, but the mushroom caps aren't spherical enough.