Meringue and Berries – A sublime summer combination
There are endless recipes for meringues: from a single large one to numerous small ones, from plain to flavoured, to unadorned to magnificently garnished.
I remember meringues from my childhood, not at home though, as my mother rarely made them, possibly because it was too difficult in her wood fired, cast iron stove. However, we kids would often see them on the table or in a jar at someone’s home (with a modern electric oven) or in the window of the bakery. Then they seemed to be so exotic. And, of course, they seemed complicated to make. But they aren’t.
We won’t give any recipes here as it is easy to track them down through your books or via the Internet. The basic recipe involves just two ingredients – egg whites and sugar – yet the recipe results in a few magical cooking moments – the whipping of the egg whites, the gloss from adding the sugar and the burst in the mouth crunch on eating. In terms of degree of difficulty, it would be around 2/5, Not Difficult. Because they are so sweet you need a counter foil, and the obvious one is to serve them with fresh berries.
You can progress from the basic model to become more adventurous, like meringue ‘sandwiches’ with an interesting filling.
The trend in Europe, which seems to be catching on here in Australia, is to make giant meringue pillows in various flavours and colours.
If you are really adventurous you could progress to something like this – our good friend Jen’s ice cream cake with a meringue base. In terms of degree of difficulty, however, count this as 4/5, Reasonably Difficult.
Meringues and berries: perfect for summer!