Short and Tweet Challenge 17: Dan Lepard’s Abundance of Meringues
This week’s #shortandtweet challenge from Dan Lepard’s Short & Sweet was for meringues in various guises. Eg pg 445 (plain, Double chocolate or Lemon sherbert) to be served plain or teamed with suitable available preserves (eg, chunky marmalade as a good contrast to the chocolate meringue shells); Apricot meringue tart pg 451; sunshine in a jar with the easy lemon curd (pg 342) and eating that with individual meringues or using it to prepare either the Lemon meringue sundae on pg 452 or Sue Lowenbein’s suggestion on the same page for an ice-cream gâteau. [The opening photograph is @underthebluegum’s Lemon meringue sundae.]
There are so few ingredients in a basic meringue (egg white and sugar) and yet so many ways for the unwary to go awry. In some households, it has to be said, this may be attributed to a failure to read the useful headnotes for the recipe, or the blithe assumption that large and medium eggs sizes are equivalent and thus specifying that detail in a recipe is a charming foible on the part of the author. My Best Beloved’s lifetime first attempt at both meringue and lemon curd is pictured below. Both of them tasted fine. Nonetheless, I should draw attention to the relatively poor volume of the meringue and blobby shape that indicates the sugar was added a little too early, when the egg-whites were not quite at the soft peak stage. The lemon curd was as easy to make as the recipe promised. This version was too liquid at room temperature, yet in the fridge, it set more like a very good soft spread butter than a curd: I feel this may reflect that my Best Beloved used medium eggs rather than large which makes a difference when the recipe involves 5 egg yolks and a large egg.
Harold McGee is the sort of investigator who poses questions such as, Why whip egg whites in copper bowls? and researches the answer (if you’re interested in an updated answer to this question and would like to know far more then read Chapter 2 of McGee on Food & Cooking). Meringues are a friendly science lesson in the kitchen and teach a lot about the effect of whipping on unfolding proteins and incorporating air to create a foam. The addition of fine-grained sugar helps to stabilise what McGee describes as a “fragile egg-white foam into a stable, glossy meringue”: he has some interesting notes about the different effect of beating or folding sugar into the foam (folding in the icing sugar makes the meringue more tender).
Last week Claire, @underthebluegum of Under the Blue Gum Tree, baked five pies as part of her domestic renaissance of the pie. This week Claire prepared another fine abundance: Short and Tweet: Lemon Meringue Sundae, Double Chocolate Meringues, Coconut Meringues with Roasted Pineapple. Her summary: “All three recipes bring meringue kicking and screaming into the 21st century and yield such fabulous results that meringues are definitely going to be included at my dinner table from now on”. The following photograph is of her chocolate meringues: go and read her observations and experiences about all three.
@Misky of Misk Cooks has a rather playful account of her meringue baking: Dan Lepard’s Double Chocolate and Lemon Sherbet Meringues. Along with the photograph of the chocolate meringues (below and notice the difference between these and Claire’s above) there is shot of the empty bowl that the lemon sherbet meringues had been mixed in: Misky made the latter with Half Spoon Granulated Sugar rather than sugar and has some helpful notes about both the baking and texture of that in the finished meringue.
@lapindor of Lapin d’Or and More almost didn’t participate in this challenge: ” I was checking back through the challenge options and grumpily announced to my husband ‘it’s meringues’ expecting him to look bored, but a hopeful smile ran across his face and after checking he had actually heard what I had said I realised he would quite like some meringues, thank you. So meringue prejuduces aside I went into the kitchen.
Well, they were very easy and very delicious, delicate crisp outer shell and soft mallowy centre, what more can I say”. As it turns out, she has a bit more to say about meringues, blood oranges, fruit salads, biscotti and bergamot marmalade: Nearly didn’t make them, glad I did. I like this shot of the meringue texture and recommend you enjoy the colourful photographs on her blog.
As for us, we tested the first batch of meringues (shown above) which were caramel chewy in every mouthful when fresh (a little drier after an overnight stand, but still chewy). The second batch were prepared with greater attention to the recipe (we had to scale it down as we didn’t have enough eggs) and we were rewarded with a thick and glossy meringue mix. We should probably have checked more carefully after 90mins as the meringues were slightly cracked after 2hrs. However, these meringues had much greater volume, and were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside with a slightly chewy centre. They were lighter in colour and I suspect that the first batch were more caramelised because the sugar bonded with the water in the egg-white in a slightly different way and because the icing sugar was whisked into the meringue mix rather than folded.
This week’s challenge recipes are: Perfect plain pita pg 76 or the Garlic, thyme and lemon version pg 77. These breads are only vaguely related in taste and texture to the ones that are commonly available from supermarkets and are worth trying. Dan Lepard says: “Pita needs very little yeast, as the rolling and the very hot oven create the lift. So if your oven doesn’t get hot enough, you’ll have to make them at a friend’s house”. This is true - you will only get the full benefit of this recipe with a suitably hot oven. You will need very good, long tongs or superb oven gloves. You have been warned (but please make them as they are a revelation if you’ve not had fresh pita recently). Simple bagels pg 61 offers a very relaxed way of preparing a recipe that had always seemed fraught with complexity when I’d read about it elsewhere. There are notes to tweak the texture by altering the quantity of water or modifying the length of time for the rise. Again, unless you’re near a very good source for them, it’s remarkably different to make your own and discover that the result is not intrinsically heavy. For anyone who didn’t bake last month’s North-South cornbread pg 53 or who did bake it and wants to use up some of the polenta or yellow corn meal, then I suggest the Double-corn bacon muffins pg 533. These are an excellent hearty lunch or tea-time item (works well with firm cooked mushrooms for those who don’t want bacon): I’ve heard that they’re good for brunch but I tend to have a punitive attitude to that institution (only within my own household and only if I’m the one responsible for preparing and serving it).
If you blog about your experience with one of the above recipes, please post links in the comments or tweet pictures or links to @foodcraftspace or @evidencematters using the hashtag #shortandtweet - Thank you. It’s the same procedure if you don’t blog but just post a photograph of your work. Please send the links by 8pm 4 March or as soon thereafter as practical.
Schedule for the #shortandtweet March 2012 challenge.It’s apparent that #shortandtweet search doesn’t always show everyone’s tweets so I apologise if I missed any notifications - please let me know and I’ll update this compilation.
Thank you for sharing your delightful meringues and I look forward to next week’s pitas, bagels and muffins.
