Fun recipe. I made small bowls and added rum extract to the meringues just after adding the sugar. I did cut back on the sugar in the meringue to 2/3 cup and that was sweet enough. The mousse is wonderful!! I used instant espresso powder and I think that is what really makes it great.

I made these because I had 3 egg whites left over from something else (and it looked good too). I would make this again, but cut back on the sugar. These are way too sweet for my taste. To do this I'd probably use bittersweet chocolate as well as cut back on the sugar in the meringue. This next comment may be my error: I had trouble getting the stiff peaks and ended out adding more cream of tartar as well as about 2 Tbs of meringue powder. I usually don't have trouble with this, but it's possible there was a little egg yolk in the whites, which would have made a difference. I would also say that I left them (covered) on the table for a couple hours and came home and they were starting to melt a bit - I'm in Miami, but it's just 70 degrees out. Because of this I put them in the fridge and they've been there for over a day and they're just fine - the meringues are still crispy. I have a hunch they could be frozen too, but I haven't tried that yet. If they weren't so sweet I would have given them a 5.

This dessert could fool ANYBODY into thinking it came from the finest 5-star restaurant - an impressive dessert you'd easily expect to spend $12.00 for. I reduced the amount of sugar in the meringue to 3/4 cup (1/4 c. per egg white), which was plenty sweet. I piped both the meringues as well as the chocolate filling (which is a whipped ganache) which made this particularly elegant. Whipping the filling lightens it up, an important step that shoudn't be skipped. I dressed this up with a drizzle of chocolate syrup, fresh raspberries and a sprig of mint. Decadent and beautiful. (And SO easy!) This is for serious dessert lovers, who like their desserts rich and sweet.

So I tried this recipe out for a school food technology project and it turned out FANTASTIC. The meringue was crunchy and really chewy on the insides when i cooked them for 45 mins I made them slightly smaller than suggested though, because it was just a tasting, but they looked soo pretty with the chocolate and everything. OH and i didnt need to whip the filling after i let it cool in the fridge overnight because it was so thick anyways. The only replacement i made was 1 1/2 bananas pureed instead of the coffee. it got a 88/90 OVERALL! awesome recipe. will DEFINATELY try again. :D