The Peppermint Bark Cookie

Sunset magazine had a recipe for White Christmas Dream Drops that I tweaked due to a lack of ingredients and came up with this mound of deliciousness.  Bryant doesn't like peppermint bark (weird) or meringue (even weirder) but loved these cookies.  Go make some.

(I doubled the recipe.  I may quadruple it next time because these are so very good.)

2 large egg whites, room temperature (if you forget to put your egg whites just put them in a bowl full of hot water and let sit for 5 minutes or so and it will do the trick)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (didn't have, but if you do have it you might want to add it)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
4 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate, finely chopped (the original recipe calls for 1 c white chocolate chips - I think it would be fun to use both, but haven't tried it yet)
1/3 c crushed candy canes (crush it as fine as you want, I didn't want to bite into a huge chunk of candy cane so I crushed mine more on the fine end of the candy crushing spectrum)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Add vanilla and salt.  With mixer on high speed add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time and beat for 10 to 15 seconds with each addition.  Scrape sides of bowl and beat for another 15 seconds or until meringue is glossy and forms straight, stiff peaks.  Fold in chocolate and crushed candy canes.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silpat and drop meringue in rounded 1 T blobs, or if you want it to be fancy schmancy pipe them with a large star tip.  Bake until they feel dry and set but are still pale in color, about 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.  Turn off oven, open door, and let cool in oven for 10 minutes.  Remove pans from oven and let cool completely.  You aren't supposed to eat them until they are completely cool, but I recommend eating 1 pan warm and 1 pan cool and then you will have the best of both worlds.