I am not the type to consider myself to have a sweet tooth, in fact I normally run away from overly sweet foods, but every now and then I’ll get a craving for something deliciously sweet. Normally I’ll go for something like Butterfingers or… dried fruit. Today, however, I stumbled upon something that I am dying to try.
Meringue with caramel and berries
Ingredients:
Meringue:
2 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
1 tbs cornflower
Caramel:
2 egg yolks
50g unsalted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup milk or cream
1/2 cup plain flour
To serve: cream, lightly whipped berries (I used frozen boysenberries, which I warmed up in the microwave)
Method – meringue:
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Cover a baking tray with baking paper.
Separate the egg whites and yolks. Keep the yolks for the caramel. Use electric beaters to whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. I didn’t have an electric beater, so it was hard work getting these soft peaks! Ensuring that the egg whites are beaten properly is quite important, so using an electric beater is a good option.
Once the egg whites are starting to form into soft peaks, slowly add the castor sugar as you continue to whip the egg whites. Continue until the egg whites are glossy and thick. Fold in the cornflour gently.
Spread a tablespoon of the mixture onto the baking paper to create a circle to form the base of your meringue nest. About 3 cm in diameter is good – any bigger and you face creating a monster meringue that you will struggle to finish eating! Put the remainder of the meringue in a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm nozzle, and pipe the mixture around the edge of the circles to form the nest.
This amount of meringue can make as many nests as you like, depending on how big you make them. You could probably make up to about 15 if you had great piping bag skills, but for someone like me getting eight really messy looking nests was more realistic!
Cook in the oven for up to 30 minutes. My meringues didn’t need quite that long, so check on them after about 15 minutes to see how they are going. I turned off the oven once they were golden on the outside. When the oven if off, leave the meringues in there to cool down.
Method – caramel:
You can put all the ingredients into a microwave proof bowl, beat together, and then zap on medium setting in the microwave for 3 or 4 minutes, stopping every minute to stir. Once the caramel has thickened, beat to remove any lumps. Leave to cool, then fill the meringues with the caramel. You could also melt the ingredients together in a saucepan on the stove, stirring regularly.
To serve: whip up the cream, and serve with berries or fruit. Then eat and enjoy!
