I love meringues. Its always a great fallback when taking my daughter out to a cafe as nearly all of them will serve meringues so its easier to get her a dairy free desert that isn’t simply a piece of fruit. Due to this she has developed a real love of meringues, and it has fast become one of her favourite deserts.

It wasn’t till I tried cooking them at home however, that I realised just how easy they are to make yourself. They also look very impressive for not too much effort. Although I would recommend using a mixer.

This recipe is for the classic french meringue. It’s a great recipe as its super simple and you can make it into any shape you like. You can just spoon your mixture onto a tray to make large meringues or you can flatten it in the middle with the back of a spoon to create meringue nests. This recipe will also work in a piping bag for making little meringue kisses (a favourite when put in little bags for bake sales) or you can pipe out into large circles for a pavlova. Once you have mastered this basic recipe, you really can go all out.

The recipe below simply states to use sugar. The type of sugar you use will effect your meringue. If you want a solid meringue with that golden crispy finish, use a caster sugar. If you want beautifully white meringue that has that slightly soft, mallow like center use icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

4oz sugar (caster or icing sugar)

1tsp flavouring if desired (i.e. vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon extract)

A little food colouring for decoration if desired

Method:

Preheat the oven to 120 °C and line a tray with grease proof paper (baking parchment)

Separate the egg whites from the yolk. I usually do this by gently passing the yolk between the two halfs of shell, while letting the whites fall into the bowl below. There are lots of methods and gadgets out there for this job though, so find which works best for you.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff

Slowly add the sugar, a spoonful at a time while continuing to whisk until the mixture becomes smooth, glossy and will not move if you turn the bowl upside down.

Whisk in any flavouring you want to use at the end.

Spoon the mixture onto the baking trays. You can either leave them as are, or you can make an indentation in the centre of the meringue with the back of a spoon of you wish to make a meringue nest.

If you want to add colour you can do this either at the same stage as the flavouring if you wish to have a uniform colour; or you can put some food colouring on the end of a cocktail stick and swirl it through your meringue once its on the baking tray for a more marbled effect.

Bake for 60-75mins until the meringues are crisp.

Leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes, before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

I usually serve with fresh berries and some whipped coconut cream.

Once you have mastered the basic meringue you can have a go at the meringue kisses recipe or the meringue roulade.