Meringues

Today I made fruit salad and meringues to bring as pudding for a dinner with friends. I just love meringues. When mamma used to bake them, she had to hide them or there wouldn’t be any left for when they were needed.

Here’s how I made mine today:

3 egg whites (make sure there is absolutely no egg yolk, or it won’t work)

100 g granulated sugar (strösocker/farin)

50 g icing sugar (florsocker/melis)

• Mix the sugars, and sift about half of the mixture over the eggs.
• Whisk in a mixmaster for quite a long time, until the mixture is stiff and you can pull little “tops” that stay that shape.
• Remove the bowl from the mixmaster and sieve the rest of the sugars on top of the mixture. Fold it in carefully with a spatula or spoon.
• Fill a plastic bag (a 1 litre bag will do), and cut off a corner. Pipe (spritsa) the mixture on to a baking tray with paper. You decide the shape and size…
• Place the tray on the lowest position in the oven, and choose the lowest possible temperature. In my oven, that is 75°C. Dry the meringues at this low heat for 2-4 hours depending on how chewy/crisp you want your meringues. I had mine in for 4 hours.
• Leave to cool on rack.
• Eat.

This recipe was adapted from my best cookery book, The New Cookery Year from Reader’s Digest. The edition I have is a 1996 update of a classic from 1973, called The Cookery Year.

Unfortunately, it is out of print. There seem to be several of them on the second hand book market, though!