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 guys are the sweetest of treats!
Meringues are one of my favourite desserts to serve to family and friends after dinner. They are nice and light but are the perfect sweet end to a delicious meal. My recipe below is a variation on the classic meringue, adding some flavour, colour and crunch by topping the meringues with chopped pistachios, hazelnuts and cocoa. These giant meringues look amazing piled up on a cake stand and served at the table with a big bowl of cream and berries, which guests can help themselves to!
The recipe below makes 6 giant meringues, but you can double it if serving more people. Although they’re probably large enough to share between two!
Ingredients
- 200g sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
To coat
- 50g chopped pistachios
- 50g chopped hazelnuts
- 50g cocoa
Method
- Cover two large flat baking trays 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!
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- 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.
- Using a large serving spoon, place generous scoops of the meringue mixture onto the baking sheets, (approx. 3-4 meringues per baking tray) leaving space between each one, as the meringues swell when they cook.
- Sprinkle some of the meringues with the chopped nuts and sieve the cocoa powder on top of the other meringues, as desired.
- Place the meringues in your preheated oven and cook for 10 minutes, and then turn off the oven.
- Let the meringues 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 meringues to cool on the baking trays for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
- Gently remove the meringues and place on a cake stand/serving plate.
- Serve the meringues alongside bowls of whipped cream and berries, and enjoy!
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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.
Catherine is also on YouTube if you want to check out some baking videos!
