Last week I wrote a piece for Today’s Mama, that went live this week, about my great-grandmother’s recipe for schaum brötle, a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth, German meringue cookie that is full of chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, and a hint of lemon zest that brightens the flavors. Writing about those cookies had my mouth-watering, so I decided that it was high time to attempt veganizing them. The only real hurdle in veganizing these cookies was the egg whites, but ultimately, it wasn’t that tall of a hurdle to jump! I simply replaced the egg whites with aquafaba. Aqua-what? If you’ve never heard of it, it’s going to sound über-bizarre. Aquafaba is the liquid in a can of chickpeas. No, I’m not going crazy . . . I promise it works and you won’t have any weird beany-flavor in your cookies! All you have to do is open a can of chickpeas and strain the liquid into a container to use as needed!
I ended up cutting the original recipe in half, as the original made too much batter to fit on one baking sheet. I didn’t like the way the cookies turned out if I had to rotate the baking sheets half way through. If you’ve got double ovens, then double the recipe and cook each sheet in its own oven. The only other changes I had to make, besides using dairy-free chocolate chips, was in cook time. The original recipe calls for 15 to 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, but cooking the vegan version for that length of time at that temperature resulted in a cookie that wouldn’t hold its shape. After playing around with temperature and time I landed on the perfect combo. The temperature stayed the same–250 degrees Fahrenheit, but the cook time increased to 35 minutes.
After the cookies have cooked for 35 minutes, you remove them from the oven and then very gently remove them from the baking sheet and set them on a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
I am beyond happy with the end result–they taste exactly like the original version. I do wonder what my Oma (great-grandmother), who trained under a chef in Switzerland during World War I, would think of my new bizarre way of making her cookies.
Vegan Schaum Brötle (German Meringue Cookies)
A veganized version of my great-grandmother's recipe for schaum brötle, a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth, German meringue cookie filled with chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, and a bit of lemon zest to brighten the flavors.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup aquafaba
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with tin foil or a silicone baking mat.
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Beat the aquafaba in a medium size mixing bowl until stiff and glossy and stiff peaks form.
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Beat in the sugar a little bit at a time, and continue beating at medium speed for 2 minutes after all of the sugar has been incorporated.
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Gently fold in the chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and grated lemon zest.
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Spoon the cookie mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Spoonfuls should be about 1 tablespoon each (I use a cookie dough scoop to make it easy). Cookies will expand slightly, so leave a bit of room between cookies.
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Bake the cookies for 35 minutes, then remove them from the oven. The cookies will be very delicate when they first come out of the oven. Carefully remove the cookies from the baking sheet and allow them to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
One could ALMOST call these nutritious, right? aquafaba, cacao, nuts, fruit (lemon zest). Just forget all that pesky sugar. I can’t wait to try this version!
TOTALLY! Don’t we wish?
i tried these on Saturday and they are amazing! I have put the leftovers in the freezer so they are not so tempting, so will see how they freeze. I could not find vegan chocolate chips, so left them out and they were delicious. I have wanted to try aquafaba for a long time and this was the perfect introduction to it. I have linked to your recipe from my blog for my readers.
thank you for the recipe, it’s amazing. everything I tried before with aquafaba was a flop. I added 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar cause last time I made aquafaba cookies it all melted down… I think it helps to stabilize the mix.
So glad you liked them!