It's a versatile, if somewhat simple sweet. It's really about the thin layer of dark chocolate, which you give more room to with a meringue. You can flavour the meringue and you can add a little bit of jam as an accent point.
The meringue and piping is easy, also filling with marmelade is not too hard.
Just coat it with tempered chocolate.
With gelatine
I use Oblatne wafers for the base. The less flavour, the better (unless you want to make it a part of the composition). Cut out to 2 cm ⌀. 🔥 Make sure they are crisp! If needed, toast them again in the oven!
Italian meringue (for about 42 small pieces):
80 gr sugar, 30 gr water, 40 gr glucose syrup for the syrup. Heat to 118° to 121° C. Brush down the pan to prevent crystals or put a lid on. This takes only a few minutes.
2 egg whites, beaten. Start beating when the sugar is ~114°.
Pour into egg whites in a thin stream while whisking (avoid the whisk) and continue to beat on medium speed until warm and glossy (about 6').
When done, fill the sugar pot with water and boil: This is the easiest way to clean it, and you'll need the bain marie for the gelatine.
1 sheet of gelatine: hydrate in cold water, then melt in bain marie. Mix 3 Tsbp. of meringue into it, then mix the mix into the rest of the meringue.
Pipe out while still warm, the gelatine will stiffen and make it a bit harder to get the perfect shape, chill. ⚠️ It's tempting to use a fancy spout, but round is best. Under the glaze, it always looks a bit tacky and irregular (in a bad way) otherwise.
🤙 Next time, I want to try shaping them after piping to make them look neater still.
Cover in tempered chocolate (for 42 pieces, you need about 400 gr). I find it easiest to just glaze sideways, roll them around and then tap the bottom in it; all the other methods are quite wasteful. I tried cake glaze, and that works well, but lacks the sheen and snap of a true chocolate.
I tried a white chocolate fat glaze, but that really didn't work; nor did, of course, the 2:1 chocolate-cream ganache (which never fully hardened). In fact, even perfectly tempered white chocolate tasted too sweet and looks unpleasantly yellowish.
Without gelatine
This recipe tastes very meringue-y and lacks the juiciness of a “true” Schaumkuss:
Make an Italian meringue:
Bring 100 gr sugar and 25 gr water to between 118° to 121° C. Brush down the pan to prevent crystals or put a lid on. This takes only a few minutes.
When the sugar is at ~114°, beat 50 gr of egg whites into stiffs. (In copper, of course, if you have it.)
Pour into egg whites in a thin stream while whisking (avoid the whisk) and continue to beat on medium speed until warm and glossy (about 10').
Pipe out, chill and cover in fat glaze (150 gr couverture and 15 gr fat, coconut, for example). I find it easiest to just dip them in the glaze, all the other methods are quite wasteful.
Ideas
Add some 焙じ茶 powder (1gr per 80 gr of meringue) and apricot jam in the middle, that was quite tasty!
桜 powder is nice, too. Works well with dark chocolate, and doesn't need the jam that I added last time.