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| Recipe Archive > Cakes & Biscuits > |
Sugar Pink Meringues
(Makes 10 meringues)
Meringues are always a treat particularly with children whose eyes are sure to light up with the sheer sight of these pretty sugar pink clouds paired with fresh cream.
Meringues also add a delicious sweet note to an afternoon tea, when you can of course omit the party- pink food colouring if you prefer a pure white confection
You will require two baking sheets lined with baking parchment (you can use a dab of butter in each corner to stick the paper to the baking sheets if you wish), plus a large piping bag fitted with a large 6 star nozzle.
Equipment & Ingredients
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4 egg whites, (from large eggs) |
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250g/9oz Whitworths icing sugar, sifted |
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3-4 drops of scarlet food colouring, (enough to achieve a pink tint to the meringue mixture) |
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½pt double cream, chilled |
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1 level tbls Whitworths caster sugar |
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Method
Whisk the egg whites with the sugar in a mixing bowl set over a pan of simmering water until thick and very creamy. Remove from the heat. Add a few drops of food colouring to a teaspoon and drop the colouring from the teaspoon into the meringue mixture (adding the colouring to the teaspoon first avoids dropping more food colouring than you need into the meringue mixture). Fold lightly into the meringue until evenly coloured to a light pink, (but do not over mix). Fill the piping bag and pipe the meringue mixture on to the prepared baking sheets into small whirls keeping to a uniform size and shape and spacing them a little apart. Place in a preheated oven at 120°C / 250°F / gas mark ½, and bake for 1 - 1¼ hours: if the meringues do not peel away from the paper easily, put them back into the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
For the cream filling, add cream, vanilla and sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat the cream until it forms soft peaks just firm enough to hold their own shape. Fill the piping bag fitted with a six star, or plain nozzle, with the cream and carefully fill the meringues about 30 minutes before serving them. The crisp meringue shells, (without the cream filling), will store layered between silicone paper in an air tight tin for up to several weeks.
Meringue Tips
There are several ways of making meringues and the method of beating whites with icing sugar in a bowl of hot water gives a firmer and more durable result than simply folding in the sugar.
For best results the bowl must be spotlessly clean and the egg whites free of specks of egg yolk or broken egg shell.
The art is to achieve a thick creamy meringue mixture that holds it own shape when you pull it with the whisk into a peak.
If it flops or even bends slightly keep whisking until the peak looks as sharp as a witches hat and then you are well on your way for making perfect meringues.
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