As part of my holiday library reading one of my books has been the River Cottage Family Cook Book – we love the river cottage programme in our household. When reading recipe books at the moment I am mostly looking for recipes that are relatively cheap to make and don’t take too much fiddling around. First on my cooking list for 2010 I chose meringues. Growing up my mum would always bake meringues and pavlova but I have always been a buy it girl. I realised last week though as I bit into my first made by me meringue that supermarket meringues have absolutely nothing on homemade meringues. Homemade meringues just melt in your mouth and are seriously addictive . They use very few ingredients and are definitely worth learning to make.
Meringues
2 large eggs, 100g caster sugar
Separate the eggs – place the whites in a clean bowl. Eggs should be at room temperature. Using an electric beater beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add half the sugar and continue to beat until you could turn the bowl upside down and nothing would fall out. The mixture should be shiny at this stage. Add the remainder of the sugar, gently folding with a metal spoon. Place teaspoons of mixture onto a tray with baking paper. Place in an oven preheated to 100oC for 1.5 – 2 hours. Remove from oven and allow meringues to cool completely.
Source: River Cottage Family Cookbook, Fearnley-Whittingstall & Carr, 2005.