Sweet meringues with tart lemon curd. What’s not to love? Both of these treats sometimes make novice cooks nervous, but they really are (if you follow the rules) dead simple.
Meringues
There are recipes with corn flour and vinegar and castor sugar … and they’re all very lovely, but not absolutely essential. For crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside meringues all you need is one cup of sugar (white granulated sugar is fine) and three egg yolks.
To make: Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil, shiny side down, and spray with a non-stick spray.
Separate your eggs carefully, putting the yolks to one side. Beat the whites with an electric mixer on high, until soft peaks start to form. Add your sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until all has been incorporated. Then scrape down the sides of the bowl, and give it one last five minute blast of whisking, until it’s glossy and thick.
Drop tablespoons of the meringue – you should get about six large meringues, onto the baking tray, and place into the oven, immediately reducing the temperature to 150°C. Bake for 10 mintues, then lower the temperatue to 120°C and bake for another 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, but don’t open the door … leave the meringues to cool down for another hour. Keep in a sealed container until you serve.
Let’s talk those rules … Your bowl and whisk need to be crystal clean; don’t let oil or yolk near them. Use fresh eggs at room temperature. Be careful when you break your eggs … there can be absolutely no yolks in the white. Meringues dislike humidity, so we’d suggest you don’t make it on a very humid day.
Lemon curd
This lemon curd is brilliant to serve with your meringues … the tartness of the lemon cuts through the sugar of the meringue.
You’ll need: Six large eggs yolks, half a cup of butter, one cup white sugar, one cup fresh lemon juice.
To make: Heat the butter, sugar and lemon juice over medium heat until it boils, and all the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat, and set aside to cool.
In a separate bowl, beat your egg until slightly frothy, and then pour a little (about quarter of a cup) of the warm butter mixture into the eggs, keep whisking while you do this.
Pour this back into the pot, and return to the stove, cooking and continually whisking over low heat until it becomes glossy and thick.
Let it cool in the pot – it will become even thicker. You can keep this in a clean, glass jar with a tight lid in the fridge.
