Delicious Gluten-Free Orange Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies AKA Forgotten Kisses

I have been looking for gluten-free cookies recipes and recently came upon a post from Anna at Cookie Madness for meringue cookies.  Her recipe opened up a whole new world of meringue cookies for me.  Forgotten Kisses refers to leaving the cookies in the oven from a few hours to overnight to crisp up.  I altered Anna's recipe a bit, but as is they were great too!!!  
I am an orange and chocolate fan so I added some orange extract to the whipped egg whites. 
You can find her recipe at the link above.
Gluten free, less fat, and some egg-white protein too!  What's not to like?

Chocolate-chip pecan meringue cookies

My adapted recipe is here:

Ingredients

• 3 large egg whites
• 1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar (don't skimp)
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  ( I made the cookies big and only needed one sheet. See tips below.) 
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until just foamy.  Add cream of tartar.  Continue beating until you have soft peaks.  Beat in the sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Continue beating until stiff, shiny peaks form (mine didn't get completely stiff. It looked like stiffer shiny marshmallow cream). 
3. To make sure the sugar has disolved, take a bit of the whites and rub between your fingers.  If it is silky smooth, you should be close to done. Then beat in the extract. Carefully fold in the pecans and chocolate chips.
4. Using a teaspoon, drop 12 mounds of cookie dough onto each baking sheet. Set one sheet on the middle rack and one on the lower rack and bake for 15 minutes.
5. After 15 minutes switch the baking sheets so the sheet on the bottom is now on the top and the sheet on top is not on the bottom. Bake for another 15 minutes at 275 degrees.
6. Turn off oven and let the cookies sit in the closed oven for about two hours or overnight. 

Tips:  

1. Use egg whites that are at least as warm as room temperature.  I take mine out and put them on top of the oven while it is preheating.
2. My stand mixer would not beat this small amount of whites so I needed to use my hand mixer.  
3. Make sure you use at least a medium sized bowl because the whites will increase in volume as you beat them.
4. Take a dab of the whipped egg whites and put some under each corner of the parchment paper to work as "glue" so it doesn't slip.
5. Bigger cookies are a bit crumbly, but I think they are impressive-looking.  Smaller "one bite" sized cookies are neater.  
6. I made larger cookies and got 13.  I baked them 45 minutes at 275 degrees.  
7. You can try using mini chocolate chips if you make smaller cookies.
8. Don't make them on a humid day unless you've got the AC running. 
9. Don't eat too many.  They are suprisingly good!!