Meringues to Eton Mess

My inspiration to make meringues again was two-fold. First, my mum was visiting and was dreaming of Eton Mess, which she had last enjoyed on a trip back to England.  The second reason, is that I was recalling this idyllic food stand we visited in Covent Garden in London last summer and the dreamy piles of perfectly pink meringues. So, on a recent visit from mum, we decided that our dessert one evening would be Eton Mess.  

We made the incredibly easy meringue and spooned it onto the Silpats creating the fun little peak.

They bake at a very low temperature and we let them cool and dry. 

The last time I made meringues, we created little fruit bowl nests. This time, we broke up the pretty peaked meringues and made lovely Eton Mess parfaits.

Recipe for Meringues

Ingredients:

4 XL egg whites

1/4 t. cream of tartar

Pinch of kosher salt

1 C. granulated sugar or caster sugar, divided

1/2 t. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. In an electric mixer using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt on high speed until frothy. Add 2/3 C. of the sugar and continue beating on high speed until the egg whites form very stiff peaks. Whisk in the vanilla. Carefully fold the remaining 1/3 C. sugar into the meringue. Pipe or spoon onto the baking sheets.

Bake for two (2) hours or until the meringues are dry and crisp but not browned. Turn off the heat and leave the meringues in the oven for four (4) hours or overnight. 

For Eton Mess, mix with chopped berries (strawberries are traditional, but blackberries, raspberries and blueberries are great) and fresh cream made from heavy whipping cream whipped with a bit of powdered sugar and vanilla 

Meringue Nests with Blackberries and Cream

Aren't these blackberries gorgeous?  They were on sale at the market and while I used some of them in the apple-blackberry crisp I made last weekend, I still had some to use.  My mum came to visit again and I thought I'd try something special for dessert one evening.  We made crispy, airy, sweet meringue nests with these luscious blackberries and fresh whipped cream.  I guess this is sort of a version of a pavlova, but mini ones. I think pavlovas are typically one large meringue cake with cream and fruit. These are individual little nests made of meringue.  I guess I just like the idea of a nest anyway...it makes everything sound cozy.

The meringue is very easy to make.  I've made it before, but this was my first attempt at nests. I whipped the egg whites, sugar and some vanilla and got this thick glossy meringue.

I spooned these heaping mounds of meringue on the Silpat.  The original recipe called for eight nests and I didn't seem to have room, so I had five pretty large nests.

Then, I took the back of a spoon to hollow out the center (with still leaving a layer in the nest) and smoothed the edges a bit. 

Here they are ready to bake. I know many people pipe them onto the baking sheet, but I sort liked the homemade swirled look to mine.

After two hours of baking at just over 200 degrees, they were all ready and peeled right off the Silpat.  I washed the berries and let them dry so that they wouldn't make wet pools in the meringue nests when I put them together.

Our evening treat was ready with a bunch of berries nestled in the meringue and topped with a big dollop of whipped cream.  It's a very simple dessert that would be easy to prep ahead of time and use with all kinds of fruits.  The flavors were uncomplicated, yet fresh and sophisticated.

Recipe for Meringue Nests

Ingredients:
3 egg whites
175 g/6 oz caster (superfine) sugar
A few drops of vanilla essence (extract)

Lay a Silpat or piece of parchment on a baking (cookie) sheet. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add 1 tbsp of the sugar and the vanilla and whisk again until stiff and glossy. Gradually whisk in half the remaining sugar, then fold in the remainder with a metal spoon. Spoon five to eight round heaps of the mixture a little apart on the baking sheet and hollow out slightly in the centers to form nests. Rough up the mixture slightly round the tops. Bake in a preheated oven at 225°F for 2-3 hours or until crisp but still white. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Carefully lift off the paper and store in an airtight container.

Wash the fruit to fill them in advance and dry in a bowl with paper towel.

For the whipped cream, use 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with a tablespoon of caster sugar and whip on high until thick and creamy.

Chocolate Ganache Tart

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If you receive Martha Stewart Living or have seen it on newstands, you may notice this tart on the cover of the February issue. This chocolate tart has a buttery chocolate crust and a creamy ganache filling. It is to die for if you love chocolate and my sister, her husband and I all agreed it was one of the best desserts we have had in a while. It is rich, but has a smooth texture and great flavor. The Martha recipe was for individual tarts, but we made one large tart in a regular round tart tin. The crust had to be kneaded a bit after refrigerating, but was easy to roll out and transfer to the tin. One tip is to roll out the dough on cocoa instead of flour so as to not discolor the crust. The filling was easy to make and it's highly recommended to use good chocolate. We used 65% cocoa bittersweet chocolate and along with the heavy cream and whole milk, it was a dreamy filling. We waited until all the kids were in bed and then enjoyed it topped with whipped cream and a meringue heart. It would also be great with strawberries or raspberries on the side. To drink? A glass of smooth red wine!

Meringue Hearts

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I've made meringue to top a lemon pie, but have never made baked meringues. These meringue hearts were made as a decoration to top our chocolate tart (see next post), but were a sweet treat on their own and turned out very pretty. They are quite easy to make and only take three ingredients - egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar. The time is in piping and baking them. They need to bake at a very low temperature for a few hours and then stay in the oven overnight. So, you won't want to make them if you have a lot of other baking to follow. I made them a day in advance of the tart as they keep well. You have to make sure to whip the meringue to stiff peaks (a mixer is essential) and I separated the meringue into three bowls to make white, pink and red hearts. The prettiest ones where when the colors were mixed a little when I switched colors while piping. They are such a sweet Valentine decoration and looked so nice on top of the chocolate tart.