Soft Meringues with Fruit and Cream

Last month when the cooking group I belong to decided that a tropical dessert is what we’d do this month and I said, “Sure, no problem, whatever you want to make.”  I was fine with that decision until I started to shop.  What WAS I thinking?  This month was to celebrate the end of summer.  Only up there, folks!

Today is the first day of Spring in Australia.  There IS no tropical fruit yet.  I had this great idea that I’d go to the farmer’s market first thing on Saturday morning (today) and pick up something wonderful. I just knew someone would have  just the right thing.

The farmer people let me down.

I found 3 nearly dried out passionfruit, 2 pretty tired pineapples, a few kiwi fruit and some strawberries.  The vegetables looked terrific but the fruit was dismal.  I looked at John and said, “Why do I get myself into these messes??”  He said it was because I always said yes without thinking.  I said, “shut up.”  He said, “you asked!”  I rolled my eyes.

I decided we must have missed something so we needed to go back through.  It was like looking into a pantry thinking something new would be there from the last time you looked 15 minutes ago.  I gave in and bought the 3 tired passionfruit and came home.

I certainly will be on the bottom of the cooking ladder with this one but I have to say, it was really good.  I knew I’d be a day late but better a day late than no dessert at all.  You nearly got a chocolate pie made with a frozen crust.

You can make meringues with as few as 2 egg whites but I wanted to make ice cream and that meant I needed 5 egg yolks, so that’s why my recipe calls for 5 egg whites.  When making meringue I always use 1/4 cup of superfine, caster or fruit sugar per egg white so no matter what I’m making that requires egg whites, I know just how much sugar to add.  I also put just a bit of white vinegar in there too in order to stabilize the egg whites.

…and yes, I know this is the standard pavlova dessert.  I got an email a while back from someone who said she really didn’t like pavlova and would prefer that they were made like an ordinary meringue (??).    So I decided if I ever posted another recipe, I would call it a soft meringue and then nobody would be timid about trying it.  (there is NO difference in a meringue and a pavlova)

Soft Meringues with Fruit and Cream

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

1 hour 30 mins

Total time

1 hour 40 mins

 

Light and airy dessert perfect after a heavy meal.

Author: Maureen

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Australian

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 5 egg whites
• 1¼ cup caster sugar
• 1 scant teaspoon white vinegar
• Whipped cream, sliced fruit or berries and passionfruit to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 115C / 239F
2. Place room temperature egg whites into a mixing bowl and whip with a balloon whisk until frothy.
3. S l o w l y add the sugar while beating on high
4. Continue beating until you can’t feel the sugar when you put a bit of meringue between your fingers.
5. Either spoon or pipe the meringues onto a baking tray covered with baking paper or a silpat. I used a spoon because I wanted it to be quick and rustic.
6. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours, depending upon how crunchy you want the outside of your meringues. I like mine crunchy.
7. When the time is up, turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven to cool. (if you need the oven they can come out – I leave them in there because my mother left them in there)
8. Top with whipped cream, sliced fruit and a drizzle of passionfruit

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

3.0.055

Please check out what my fellow baking club members whipped up for tropical dessert month.  If you’d like to join us – it’s just for fun – and we’d love to have you.
The Deep Dish
Simply Sweet Justice
From My Sweet Heart

You might also like:

Tagged as: cream, eggs