Meringue Cornflake Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Meringue cornflake cookies are delightfully chewy, filled with crunchy cornflakes and bursting with bits of chocolate chips. It’s the kind of cookie you’d love to eat on a cold winter day, sitting by the fire, sipping hot chocolate or warm milk.

(Looking for more cookie recipes to add to your holiday baking? Try these chewy and chocolatey M&M cookies — so fun and festive to make! If you have crinkle fans and we are all of us crinkle fans, these chocolate crinkles and ube crinkles do not disappoint. And these Filipino coconut macaroons are easy to make and so delicious!)

There’s just something about these meringue cornflake cookies that’s so cozy and Christmasy. In fact, they’re based on a popular Icelandic holiday cookie called Marens-Kornflexkökur.

Here, they’re called a variety of names like cornflake meringue drops, meringue cornflakes, cereal meringue cookies or simply meringue cornflakes. Whatever you want to call them, they are chewy meringue filled with crunchy cornflakes with bits of chocolate chips in every bite.

Not too sweet, chewy and crunchy, chocolatey, thoroughly addicting.

What’s not to love?

And since it’s the holidays, let’s drizzle more chocolate on top or dip each cookie in chocolate to make a meringue cookie sandwich. Then you’ll have a Christmas treat everyone will ask for year after year (and most likely even when it’s not Christmas!).

How to make meringue cornflake cookies

1. PREHEAT OVEN. First you want to preheat your oven to 300F. Take a baking pan or cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. WHISK EGG WHITES. Using an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until it starts to get foamy. Add a pinch of salt and continue to whisk until frothy.

3. MAKE MERINGUE. Gradually add sugar until you reach stiff peaks.

4. ADD GOODIES. Add cornflakes and chocolate chips to your meringue and fold gently until incorporated.

5. SCOOP TO PAN. Drop your meringue into prepared pan using a cookie scoop. These meringue cornflake cookies won’t spread so you can place them fairly near each other.

6. BAKE. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies start turning a light golden brown and the cookies start losing their shine. You can also lightly press a cookie (or a few cookies) and if they don’t stick to your finger, they’re done.

7. COOL AND ENJOY. Remove the cookies from the oven. You can cool the cookies on the pan and if you’re drizzling with chocolate, make sure they are completely cool before doing so. Store in an airtight container.

Ingredients

The ingredients for these cornflakes meringue are pantry basics:

• Egg whites
• Granulated sugar
• Cream of tartar
• Cornflakes
• Semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (you can use regular sized chocolate chips but stick to semi-sweet or dark chocolate)
• Salt

If you’re wondering what to do with the egg yolks you’ll have left over from this recipe, check out this delectable collection of recipes that use egg yolks. So helpful!

Baking tools

You don’t really need special tools to make this cornflake cookie recipe. I use a stand mixer to whisk the egg whites but if you only have an electric hand mixer, that will work too.

Apart from that, you’ll just need:

• Baking pans or cookie sheets
• Parchment paper (or silicone baking mats if you have them)
• Cookie scoop (I use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop)
• Spatula
• Measuring cups and spoons

Recipe FAQs

Simple, isn’t it? This is really one of my favourite cookies to make. To make it even easier, here are tips for you so you can make perfect cornflake and chocolate filled meringue cookies every time.

Tips for making the perfect meringue

Making meringue is one of those things that home bakers everywhere have feared at some point in their baking journey (I know I did!).

But over time, I’ve gotten better and better at it. Some of the things to keep in mind when making meringue:

• Always (always!) use room temperature egg whites. They whip better and are more stable. However, it’s easier to separate the yolks from the whites when the eggs are cold so what I do is separate the yolks and whites right when I take the eggs out of the fridge, place the whites in a bowl and leave them on the counter for about 30 minutes to bring them to room temperature.
• Meringue and grease are not friends. So you need to make sure that your bowl and whisk are dry, clean and oil-free. It’s better to use glass, stainless steel, or ceramic bowls because plastic has a tendency to hide traces of oil in it.
• Add sugar gradually. It takes a lot of restraint to only add a teaspoon of sugar at a time when you have a boatload of sugar to add but this really makes all the difference. You want the sugar to dissolve into your meringue properly.
• Try not to make meringue on a very humid day. Meringue absorbs moisture so if it’s humid or rainy, your meringue has a bigger chance of falling apart. Which makes these cookies perfect winter cookies; there is almost zero humidity in the winter.

Why did my meringue shrink after baking?

The main cause of meringue shrinking after baking is humidity or moisture in the air.

When baking meringue we are essentially drying them out, resulting to the sugar and the egg whites forming a crisp outer shell. And when we take them out of the oven, they will immediately start to absorb the moisture in the air.

So try to avoid making meringue on a very humid day.

How can I properly store meringue cookies for them to last longer?

These cookies are best served the day they are made and stay crisp and chewy until the day after. Longer than that, they might start to get a crumbly texture.

It’s best to store them in an airtight container on the counter. No need to refrigerate.

Other meringue cookie recipes

Love meringue? Me too! Here are other meringue cookie recipes you can try.

• Silvanas (or sylvanas) are crunchy meringue cookie sandwiches filled with luxurious French buttercream. They’re a unique and beloved Filipino treat!
• While these double chocolate meringue cookies are crispy outside, chewy and chocolatey inside, light as a cloud.

Whatever kind of meringue dessert you decide to make, I’m sure it will be delicious.

Try this snowball cookies recipe too, they’re perfect for the holidays!

And if you have extra cornflakes, these no bake cornflake clusters are a delicious and easy way to use them up.

Have fun and have a wonderful holiday season!

Happy baking!

Did you make meringue cornflake cookies (or Marens-Kornflexkökur)? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.