THE MERINGUE CANON

Italian or French meringues? Or Swiss? This is what a very good friend – who also happens to be one of those cooks who seemingly pulls off complex recipes in a breezy 20 minutes after the guests arrive – asked me when I said I was revisiting my failed meringue and green tea cream recipe now I have a new oven (yay). To which I replied, huh? Well, now after a bit of research I can definitively say these meringues are French. They are apparently the easiest to make in the meringue canon and are all marshmallow-y pillow-y inside. 

I chose this recipe, because aside from the ‘meringue for beginners’ tag, I’m partial to the marshmallow inside (and I love France). It reminds me of the pavlovas my grandma would make when I was a little girl. She’d serve it to me with chocolate cream – not too laden with sweetness. You could still taste the vein of cocoa and it was perfect with the sugar bliss bomb of meringue.

It is the same effect with the green tea cream and pistachio combination, and I love it because it's so unexpected.

Meringues with Green Tea Cream and Pistachios

SERVES 6

4 egg whites from large organic eggs, at room temperature

A pinch of salt

240g of caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

TO SERVE

150mlm thickened cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp of matcha (green tea powder)

1/3 cup of unsalted pistachios

Preheat the oven to 150C and line a large baking tray with baking paper. Separate your eggs, and place the egg whites in a large bowl (it’s vital the bowl is clean and dry otherwise the egg whites won’t aerate). Add a pinch of salt, and then with a whisk or an electric beater start beating the egg whites slowly. They should start to froth up and thicken after about a minute. Increase speed and beat until they form stiff peaks. Then add one tablespoon of sugar at a time, whisking after each one, and beating continually until you have thick, glossy white meringue. Add the vanilla extract and whisk in.

On your tray, spoon 6 even apple-sized mounds of meringue spaced well apart so they can spread while they cook. Don’t worry if they look kind of messy with curly flourishes every which way - that’s part of their charm. Place the tray on the middle shelf of the oven and lower the heat to 120C. Cook for 50 minutes and then turn the oven off and leave them in there until they’re cooled (this prevent them from cracking). 

Pound the pistachios with a mortar and pestle until you get a half and half mix of nuts and meal. 

Whip the cream, icing sugar and matcha together until thick and dollopy.

When you’re ready to serve dollop a generous serving of cream on each meringue and scatter the pistachio mix over the top.

Enjoy! And thanks for stopping by.

Alex