Those of you who know me, kow that I love meringues. I love baking them, photographing and most of all eatin them!
They are super versatile and can be paired with all sorts of toppings. There is a meringue recipe for every season and every occastion.
Best of all, you can make the meringues in advance along with the toppings. And meringues can easily last for a week when stored in a cool, dry place.
In this recipe, I have topped the meringue with orange curd and sugared cranberries paired with whipped cream, walnuts and fresh oranges. Could it get anymore christmassy than these colours?
In the recipe, I have not given the amount of whipped cream you need but you can get a tub and whip it up but if you want to be healthy, you can whip up greek yogurt instead. I used clementines to make the curd but you can make it with any kind of oranges.
Let’s get baking, my lovely friends
Merry Christmas!
Servings 10 servings
Calories/Serving 273kcal
Ingredients
Make Meringue
- 120 gram egg whites about four small eggs
- 240 gram white caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 3/4 tsp cornflour
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Make Mango Curd
- 75 ml orange juice
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1 egg
- 75 gram sugar
- 75 gram butter unsalted
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch or arrow root powder
Sugared Cranberries
- 250 gram cranberries
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
Instructions
- Make sure to measure the ingredients as you need the exact amount for this recipe.
- It's extremely important that all the utensils that use are completely dry and don't even have a hint of grease. A small amount of water and grease will destroy the meringues. I rub all the bowls, mixer blades, cutlery and piping bags with lime or lemon to remove grease from the pan and then use a dry dish cloth to remove any lemon residue.
- Pre-heat the oven to 175 degree centrigrade
- Spread the sugar in a baking pan and place it in the oven for seven minutes
- Remove sugar from the oven and mix in the corn flour and baking powder
- In parallel, start beating the egg whites using the whisk attachment on an electric mixer. Make sure that there is not even a hin of egg yolk as it will destroy the meringue. Whisk on low speed for 1-2 minutes until the eggs are foamy.
- Add cream of tartar
- Start beating at medium high speed for 2-3 minutes until the stiff peaks form. Stiff peaks are formed when the eggs turn completely white in colour and start to hold shape
- Then start adding sugar one tablespoon at a time to the egg whites. Make sure to bring the mixture back to stiff peaks after each spoonful of sugar
- This should take about 6-7 minutes in total (when using a hand-held electric whisk)
- Mix in the vanilla essence (optional)
- Pour the meringue mix on a parchment paper.
- Mold it in the shape of about 6 inch round cake. Then mold it in the shape of a volcano with a little well on the top for adding fruits – see pictures. Make sure that the parchment paper is wider than the base of the meringue as the meringue will expand during baking.
- If you want to add colour to the meringue, take aside 2-3 tbsp of the meringue and mix in the food colour of your choice. It's much better to use gel food colour for meringues.
- Turn the oven temperature down to 100 degrees centrigrade
- Bake the meringue for little over one hour. At no point, the oven door should be opened as it will produce cracks.
- After turning off the oven, I leave the meringue overnigth in the oven and open the oven door only in the morning. If you want, you can take meringue out after few hours in the oven
- Meringue can be made 2-3 days in advance. Store it in a cool, dry place
Make Orange (Clemnetine) Curd
- Beat the eggs and set it aside
- Mix in clementine juice and cornstarch until it's smooth paste
- Set a thick bottom pan on low heat and add in sugar, clementine juice and cornstarch
- Cook, stirring it constantly, until the mixture thickens and is bubbling. About 2-3 minutes
- Pour the hot mix in the beaten eggs while whisking furiously (it's super important to make sure the eggs don't turn into solids)
- Return the mix to the heat until it thickens, about 2-3 minutes. Keep stirring continuously
- Remove the mix from the heat and add in butter. Whisk until the butter melts
- Curd can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a day
Assemble the Meringue
- Whip double cream until it's ligth and fluffy
- When ready to serve, gently tap the merigue to break it into smaller pieces
- Serve it topped with whipped double cream, orange curd, sugared cranberries, walnuts and fresh oranges
Make Sugared Cranberries
- Make sure to remove all the browned and softened cranberries. These cranberries will not taste good
- Add 1/3 cup of sugar to the pan and water to the pan and bring it to boil
- Simmer for 6-7 minutes for the syrup to thicken . Turn off the heat
- Add cranberries to the sugar syrup in batches so that they are fully coated with the sugar syrup
- Spread the cranberries in a single layer on a parchment lined tray. Let me them coo for an hour
- Roll the cranberries in the remaining sugar. Do this step in batches so that cranberries are full coated
Notes
Note: It is extremely important to use the baking sheet to line the baking tray and not aluminium foil as the foil prevents the meringue from expanding.
Before making the meringue, make sure to clean all the cooking utensils even the whisk with lime or lemon juice as it removes all grease and then use a cloth to dry them
Tried this recipe?Mention @Incredible.kitchen or tag #myincrediblekitchen!
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