Strawberry Meringue
Gateau
I had a special request the other day from one of my dinner
guests. Could he have some proper
custard with his steamed sticky toffee pudding, please, instead of salty
caramel sauce? Not a problem and best of
all, my pal Ronnie, he of the Ecological Farm – Can Musson de Buen Honor, look it up on the www, its just an
amazing enterprise, had given me a box of eggs straight from the chicken
coop! So – one delighted, custard
connoisseur guest.
Ha, fooled you though, this recipe isn’t about making
custard; I’ll do that another day. Its
on my usual theme, what to do with leftovers, in this case five amazing egg
whites? By the way the custard was mind
blowing.
There was another stroke of luck at the market today
too. Big 2 kg boxes of Spanish
strawberries for €4.98! They’re big,
almost certainly glasshouse grown and a bit under-ripe. That isn’t a problem though, we’re not at
Wimbledon. That can be fixed, its easy.
So today’s crafty recipe is for meringues, of course, what
else? But not just ordinary meringues,
Strawberry
Meringue Gateau is my theme for today.
Sheer Indulgence
OK here we go, this is what we do.
First set the oven to
100 C and prepare two 21 cm flan tins by cutting circles of baking
parchment to cover the base of each tin. Lightly grease their bases and sides
with sunflower oil to prevent the finished meringues from sticking to the sides,
then put the “cartouches” in (parchment circles to you and me!) and push then
firmly into contact with the base of the tins.
Ingredients
Meringue
5 Eggs whites at room temperature
120 gm Caster Sugar
120 gm Icing sugar
Sunflower oil, a touch
Filling
500 gm strawberries
A small glug or two of Cointreau
1 tablespoon caster sugar
Cream
150 gm Mascarpone
250 ml whipping cream
50gm Icing sugar
Method
Meringue
In a clean glass or stainless steel (not plastic) bowl beat
the egg whites with an electric whisk – on medium speed, until the mixture
stands up in stiff peaks.
Add the caster sugar slowly to the egg white foam, a
tablespoonful at a time whilst whisking on high speed, until the sugar is all
used and mixture takes on a glossy sheen, then stop.
Lastly fold in the icing sugar one dessert spoon at a time, using
a ‘figure of eight’ movement and taking care not to knock the air from the
sugary foam. If you try to cheat and
beat it in with the electric whisk you
will fail. I’ve tried it and the
end result resembles a sugary doorstep on which you could easily break your
teeth!
After all the icing sugar has been thoroughly mixed in, put
dollops of the mixture carefully and equally into the flan tins. Smooth the tops, you’ll only be able to make
them look ‘swirly’ because by now the mixture is quite gooey – try not to get
splodges on the sides of the tins, they can get charred in the oven, make it
difficult to extract the finished meringue from the tin and give it a burned taint.
Put the loaded tins on a lower mid shelf in the oven, set the
timer for 90 minutes. When timer pings,
reduce the temperature to 80 C and reset the timer for another 60 minutes and
wait. What is happening here is that we
are not cooking the meringues in a conventional sense; we are simply drying the
egg/sugar mixture – Simples!
It is easy to tell if the meringues are ready, press VERY
lightly on the top – if there is no “give” they’re done. If you still feel a little movement, let them
dry as the oven cools down, go to bed, have a stiff drink or take the dog for a
walk until they finish.
When the meringues are lovely and crisp, take them from the
oven and leave them aside to cool in the tins for half an hour or so. You should see them break away slightly from
the edges of the tins as they cool down.
Now for the tricky bit, getting the finished product out! Try not to smash the meringue discs or you’ll
have to revise your dessert offering to “Eton Mess.” Start by gently flexing
the sides of the tin and then deflecting the base a little to free up the
meringue – all being well it’s time to remove them. Put a clean flat board over the top of the tin;
flip the tin over and Voila! The meringue plops on to the board – we
hope! Repeat! We now have the job more or less licked,
excuse the pun.
Let the meringues cool thoroughly to room temperature before
starting to assemble the gateau. If you
don’t, your whipped cream will melt as you load the gateau and the cat will be
all over the kitchen worktop having a birthday with the dripping cream! At this stage meringue can be stored, either
in the fridge or even the freezer. Just
make sure this you seal it well in an airtight plastic bag or it will go
soggy. It will anyway later, but at this
stage you’ll want to present it looking pristine.
Filling and sauce
(Coulis)
Wash and ‘hull’ the strawberries, drain them well and put
them in a pan with a glug or so of Cointreau.
Shake the caster sugar over them.
Heat the pan until the juice from the strawberries, Cointreau
and sugar melt together, don’t let the mixture boil, the fruit should still be
firm’ish when you load the gateau. Cover
the pan with a lid and set aside to cool.
When the fruit is cold, drain and reserve the juice and a
tablespoonful of fruit.
Reduce the juice/and reserved strawberries over a high heat,
stirring constantly until it has a jam like feel. Remove it from the heat immediately and blend
it to a coulis with a high speed, hand held, electric blender. Set it aside in a clean jug or bowl.
Cream
Put 250ml of 35% whipping cream into a clean, cold bowl.
Add the icing sugar and beat together with an electric mixer
until the cream begins to thicken
Add the mascarpone to the mixture and continue to whip the
cheese/cream mixture until it becomes firm.
Assemble the gateau
Put one round of meringue on to a clean circular board, ‘swirly’
side up if it is still attached; leave the cartouche on the base layer of
meringue. It helps when you cut and serve
a slice.
Loading the filling
Load the top of the meringue with two thirds of the whipped
cream, making a slight hollow in the centre and leaving perhaps 3cm free at the
edge (‘coz you’re going to press down on the top layer soon and we don’t want
it oozing out!) Add the strawberries into
the hollowed out cream “nest.” Next, make
sure that the cartouche is NOT attached to this, the second layer of meringue! Then ‘butter’ the underside with most of the
remaining cream, place it on top of the loaded base meringue/strawberry/cream layer and gently press the layers together,
saving just a little for decoration on the top.
Finally put about eight teaspoonful's of the remaining cream, evenly around the circumference of the top meringue, put a strawberry on top of each blob of cream. Then relax, you’ve done it!!! Get ready for the applause from your guests and avoid the bathroom scales for at least three weeks
If you wish, the gateau can be frozen at this stage, for no
more than a week, do it straight away if you’re not planning to serve it same
day, then the juices will not have time to soak into the meringue and make it
soggy. In fact I like to freeze mine anyway;
it is easier to cut whilst it is frozen or semi-frozen. Cut it first and de-frost for an hour before
serving.
Serve with just a little of the coulis “napped” (drizzled in
plain English) on top of each slice and on the plate.
!
