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Bocono Dolce
Peggy Germain
The name translates to "sweet mouthful" in Italian. This is my family's favorite. We have been making this dessert for at least 20 years!
Ingredients
4 egg whites, best at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 bag (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels
3 tablespoons water
1 pint strawberries
2 pints heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line either two or three cookie sheets with waxed paper. Trace an 8-inch circle on the waxed paper (a cake tin can act as a guide). Whip the egg whites slightly until frothy. Then begin to add sugar and cream of tartar gradually until egg whites form stiff peaks (to make a meringue). Fill in circles on cookie sheets with equal amounts of meringue mixture, trying to keep the tops as smooth as possible. Bake for one hour and 30 minutes until meringue is golden and firm. Remove from oven and very gently loosen from tray and waxed paper.
Slowly melt the chocolate morsels mixed with the water. Then, thinly slice the strawberries, setting two or three "perfect-shaped" ones to the side to slice in half for decorating the top. Whip heavy cream with powdered sugar until stiff.
Place one meringue layer on cake plate. Spread thin layer, to cover, of chocolate on top. Remember to let cool if still warm. Follow with layer of whipped cream. Add a layer of strawberries. Repeat last three steps with the second layer of meringue.
Place the third (and "smoothest topped") meringue on the top. Decorate with saved strawberries. Use remaining whipped cream to ice around the sides only. Make sure everyone has seconds until this cake is gone! It doesn't keep very well, although my family has been known to wake up extra early the next morning to finish it off before the meringue is too soggy!
Suggestions
Sounds a little complicated, but really isn't. I store the meringue overnight inside the cooled oven to make sure it doesn't get soggy. This has happened in humid weather! The taste is out of this world