Magic Meringues

So I figured first post, lets do something simple. Testing the waters as it were. Last night for New Years Eve I made a really gorgeous dessert with fig macrons and honeyed cashews and other wonderful things, I’ll recipe the whole dish at some point, but one component was also these really great nuggets of happiness.

Now I know quite a lot of people struggle with meringues whether its having the come out burnt or weird and hollow or too runny or not whipping at all or other weird problems. I have too at one point or another. This is my little fail safe recipe and some basic tips for not screwing up meringues.

This recipe is solid and pretty great for piping baskets for fruit and cream, so beautiful! Or just mini meringues for snacks or why not just full sized meringues for big snacks! (no one is judging you.)

Meringues

Ingredients

• castor sugar        100g
• icing sugar          100g
• egg whites           100g (it’s about 3 egg whites if you’re lazy)
• cornflour              15g

Soundtrack

• I had on a really meringuey 2005 Alternative playlist with the likes of NIN- The Hand That Feeds,Spoon – I Turn My Camera On, QOTSA – Little Sister, LCD Soundsystems -Daftpunk is playing at my house.

Method

• Preheat oven to 100°c line your baking tray/s with baking paper.
• Get your egg whites whipping, best in a stand mixer. Arm workouts are best for the gym. This way you can measure out the rest of your stuff, but keep an eye on your eggs that they don’t over whip!
• Pour your castor sugar into your whites as they’re whipping. Whip until medium peaks. (When you lift your beater out the foam it has a not-to-stiff floppy foam peak)
• Meanwhile sift your icing sugar and cornflour together, then fold it into your egg mixture until combined. (Don’t mix it hard you’ll be the lovely air out of it and no one wants that)
• Spoon your meringue into your piping bag with a round or star nozzle the size dependent on the size meringue you want. If you don’t have a nozzle that’s also cool, if you don’t have a piping bag you can use a sandwich bag and just careful cut the corner off.
• If you don’t have any of this things, what are you? I’m kidding! Just spoon little amounts of meringue onto your baking sheet try to get them all the same size. The roughness actually adds a little character don’t you think?
• Now pipe your meringues as required onto your baking tray. I suggest stenciling on the baking paper before hand if you’re making baskets or larger meringues as so get them all the same size. (If you are stenciling use a black marker and then don’t forget to turn your baking paper over so you don’t get marker on your meringues!)
• I piped baby meringues about 2cm long because I was using them for a plated dessert, but feel free to experiment.
• Place your trays in your oven and bake for ± an hour. Mine took exactly and hour. If yours are bigger they may take longer. Do not fret! Just check them every 10 mins or so. To check your little beauties all you need to do is peel back the baking paper from underneath and look at the bottom of one of your meringues, if the bottom of your meringue is nice and hard and if you give it a tiny little tap and it sounds a little hollow then your dudes are done.

Congratulations you made a meringue! *High five*

This was fun guys, lets do it again tomorrow.

xxx