Cocoa Crunch Meringue Sandwiches

Dorie Greenspan's Cocoa Crunch Meringue Sandwiches are made with chopped toasted almonds or walnuts, and no flour.  The ingredient list is short, the steps involved are straightforward, and I felt confident heading into this baking project.

My first question arose around beating the egg whites until they start to turn opaque.  I wondered what that looked like exactly, and made my best guess.  After adding the sugar the whites whipped up to nice stiff, shiny peaks.  Next I folded in a sifted mixture of confectioner's sugar and cocoa, and then the almonds.  I did all this folding as gently as possible.

I piped the batter onto the parchment paper, using the 2 inch pencil drawn circles as a guide.  In the end I had enough batter for 14 meringues, with 2 of them quite small, not the expected yield of 16.  I wonder were the egg whites not at room temperature when I started or was I too vigorous when I folded in the sugar, cocoa and nuts?

Feeling ready to get out of the kitchen I didn't make the filling as directed but simply melted some chocolate chips, which worked well to keep the meringues sandwiched together.