STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM MERINGUES

Meringues are great for Christmas as they can be made in advance and can be made large or small and flavoured to suit your tastes. Also recipes have become more accurate as weighing the egg whites have taken the fear and disasters out of these delicate little delights.

Makes 60 -80 small

3 large egg whites (85g)

195g white sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 drops red food colouring

2 tsp strawberry freeze dried powder

200g mascarpone

100 ml cream

2 punnets fresh summer strawberries, hulled and cut if necessary

Method

Preheat oven to 110C

Line 1-2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Place a medium saucepan of water over gentle heat and bring to a simmer.

Place egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl (I use my bowl from my mixer), ensuring it doesn’t come into direct contact with water.

Heat for approximately five minutes or until a thermometer reaches 40C, or until the sugar has dissolved into the egg whites. It is important that you don’t overheat the egg whites or they will start to cook.

Remove from the heat and place onto your mixer with whisk attachment and whisk until the mixture has cooled (approx 10 minutes).

Divide the mixture into two and in one bowl add the vanilla and fold through.

In the second bowl add the food colouring and strawberry powder, fold through until just combined.

You can pipe the meringues on using a small nozzle and creating small rounds or you can use a teaspoon and spoon small mounds onto your tray.

Place the meringues into the oven and turn down to 100C.

Cook for approximately 40 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the door closed until oven has gone cold and meringues have dried out.

They will last in air tight container for 2-3 days.

To make the cream; add the mascarpone to the cream and whip gently with a spatula so it thickens.

Either serve the meringues in a festive bowl with fresh strawberries and cream. Or arrange them into a Christmas tree shape, I piped the cream in the centre and let the children arrange the meringues and strawberries around to create the tree.