They make their meringues slightly differently to any way I have made them before, in that the sugar is heated in a hot oven for 5 minutes before being gradually added to the egg whites (which are whisked to stiff peaks before adding the sugar). Once all the hot sugar is incorporated, the meringue is whisked at high speed for 5 minutes until the bowl is cooler and all the sugar crystals have dissolved and the mixture stands in a smooth shiny peak on the tip of your finger. And it's VERY shiny. Like gloss paint shiny, you can almost see your reflection in it.
The first recipe I tried was their pretzel chocolate marshmallow meringue tart. This was a very rich dessert consisting of a digestive biscuit and pretzel base, then a salted chocolate ganache, then topped with meringue mixed with melted marshmallows. It's set in the fridge rather than cooked, as the gelatine in the marshmallows sets the meringue. Just before serving you flash it under a hot grill (or blowtorch it) and top with pretzels. It was so rich we couldn't finish it all, so I took it to work, where it didn't last long!
Today I thought I'd try and make their meringue "kisses" - piped blobs of meringue, coloured and flavoured as you desire - there are loads of ideas in the book - and sandwiched together in pairs with something, or just eaten as they are. Apparently they keep for up to two weeks, though unless I hid them there's no chance of them hanging around that long in our house! I went for the rosewater and pistachio ones as I happened to have some ground pistachios left over in the cupboard. After making the meringue, I mixed in the pistachios and some rosewater and then it was time for the piping. The method they use is painting stripes of food colouring on the inside of the piping bag with a paintbrush, turning it the right way out and filling it with mixture, then piping. This is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Firstly I didn't have a clean paintbrush. I tried a pastry brush but that wasn't working so I used the end of a spoon. That was ok, but the turning-the-bag-the-right-way-out resulted in my hands getting covered in red food colouring. I persevered, and the meringues did have a nice effect but not quite as good as in the book. I definitely need more practice, and next time I'll not bother with the piping nozzle as I think the hole was too small. Still, they looked ok as you can see, having been sprinkled with more pistachio before the baking:
The above photo was taken as they came out of the oven - after 40 minutes at 100 degrees C, you know they're done when they leave the baking paper easily with their bottoms intact! I sandwiched them together with whipped cream containing more ground pistachios and more rosewater. The middles were light and a bit gooey and the outsides very crispy. I'm looking forward to making more of these, and they were a hit with the family, daughter gave them four and a half out of five even though she doesn't like nuts.
I'll keep you posted. I think some kind of pavlova is next. I've made meringue based desserts before, including roulades, and piled up small meringues stuck together with cream and fruit, but this book has so many good ideas it has really fired my enthusiasm. They even float them in hot chocolate! I have a special friend coming for dinner in a few weeks and she might be treated to a meringue based pud...
Thank you for reading, feel free to share this,
Caroline :-)
