I have never been good at meringue's firstly because I don't eat them so I do not have the greatest passion to cook them, but with all the paleo mayonnaise I am making I am gaining a good stock of egg whites building up in the freezer, so I thought I would give this a go, I cleared my afternoon so it would be just me and the meringue...
I married up two different recipes from ottolenghi the king makers of meringue's and an old fashioned recipe from someones nan who uses the Italian method which has you heating your sugar in the oven or in a pan and making a soft sugar syrup that you add to your whisked egg whites, I also learnt about the Swiss method where you heat the egg whites with the sugar until to hot to touch and then whisk it, there are a few other methods but the Italian method served me proud. So here we go...
This was a lot easier than I expected, the reason for this is that I actually read the recipe and followed the instructions, something I don't often do! mmm explains a lot !!!
Ingredients
300g caster sugar
4 lrg egg whites
pinch of salt
4 tsp rosewater
handful chopped pistachios
Pre heat your oven to 115 degrees C/(225F). Separate your egg whites from your egg yolks and reserve the yolks for making mayonnaise (recipe below), place your egg whites in a clean dry whisking bowl.
Place a pan on the stove and add the sugar on a medium heat gently start to warm the sugar slowly so that you can just see the edges melting, you don't want a syrup (you can) but I wanted hot sugar just melting at the edges take off the heat while you whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt on high speed until they double in volume and become stiff.
With the mixer on medium speed slowly add the hot sugar and once incorporated add one tsp of rosewater now turn up to a high speed and mix for approx seven minutes, a good indication of this is when the mixing bowl is warm to touch.
Line your baking sheet with parchment and using two of your largest spoons make large grapefruit size dollops, don't be a perfectionist, character adds charm and flavour, place on your baking sheet and sprinkle over some of your chopped pistachios.
Place in the pre heated oven for 1.30 mins/2hrs I like to turn the baking tray every half hour as I am a novice and still need to practise, also my oven does not give an even cook!
Once cooked you will have a perfect crispy dry outside with a gorgeous gooey marshmallow soft centre, now I would drizzle in the cracks some of the left over rose water to enhance that gorgeous burst of flavour, this is what makes these meringue's outstanding gorgeous and even I could not stop eating them, I suppose serving them with a generous dollop of clotted cream fresh blueberries and raspberries did not help!
These do not really need a shelf life as they will not last long enough in any home to go out of date.
Mayonaise Ingredients
3 egg yolks
1 pinch of sea salt
1 pinch of white pepper
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 cap full white wine vinegar
300ml ish cold pressed raspeseed oil
You can make your own mayonaise in 3 minutes, place the egg yolks, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar in a deep whisking bowl with a dash of rapeseed oil and whisk together, then keep whisking with a constant drizzle of oil until you have a thick mayo emmulsion, you can season this further with fresh grated garlic or some lemon juice and zest.
