Boutique Bake Recipe: Meringue Christmas Wreath

The lovely Catherine from Boutique Bake has been sharing her delicious baking recipes with us (you can check out more Boutique Bake recipes here) and these quick and easy treats can be whipped up (and devoured) in a jiffy! And today's is a festive delight.

I have shared a lot of meringue recipes with you but here is one more very festive one! This recipe is for a ‘Meringue Christmas Wreath’, which looks absolutely gorgeous and is the perfect recipe to serve on Christmas Day, as a nice light accompaniment to the traditional Christmas pudding.

You can decorate your wreath with berries and mint leaves, or if you have some holly this would look great too.

Ingredients:

• 150g caster sugar
• 4 egg whites (at room temperature)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Raspberries, strawberries, mint leaves and icing sugar, to decorate
• Red ribbon
• Freshly whipped cream, to serve

Serves: 6-8 people

Method:

• Cover a large flat baking tray with parchment paper.
• Preheat your oven to 180ºC
• In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form

Boutique Bake’s Top Tip: leftover egg yolks can also be used as a glaze for pastry, as a binder for homemade meatballs or burgers, in homemade mayonnaise or to make custard!

• Start to add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; beating for 5 to 7 minutes on medium speed or until stiff glossy peaks form and the sugar is dissolved.
• Add in your vanilla and give the mixture one last mix
• Start to place generous scoops of the meringue mixture onto the parchment paper, and make a circular shape, continue until you have a full circle of meringue
• Place the meringue wreath in your preheated oven and cook for 10 minutes, and then turn off the oven.

• Let the meringue dry in the oven, with the door closed, for 1 hour until dry and crisp on the outside but still light in colour (using this method they will still be slightly gooey and marshmallowy in the centre)
• Remove from the oven and leave the meringue to cool on the baking tray
• Gently remove the meringue and place on a cake stand/serving plate.
• It helps to use a knife to loosen the bottom of the meringue first; this will help your wreath to stay intact!

• Decorate with berries, mint leaves and a ribbon.
• Finally, dust with some icing sugar
• Serve with a generous helping of cream and enjoy!

If you’d like to read more from Boutique Bake, why not check out the website www.boutiquebake.ie? And if you are a social media fan, you can like on Facebook, find Catherine on the twitter machine (or Instagram) by searching @boutique_bake or even on Pinterest.