A delicious crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle, nutty meringue. Adding toasted nuts to meringue not only gives a marvellous flavour boost, but it makes it less tooth-achingly sweet. A little brown sugar adds a beautiful golden hue. Top with a mix of cream and yoghurt, blackberry sauce and fresh blackberries and you have a gorgeous autumnal dinner party dessert.
2tbspcrème de mûresor other fruit liqueur (I use homemade cassis)
Instructions
Set the oven to 200℃ (180℃ fan, 400℉, Gas 6).
Using a stand mixer or electric beaters, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Add a tablespoonful of caster sugar and whisk some more. Keep whisking and slowly add the remaining sugar, finishing up with the muscovado. The meringue should be thick and glossy and shouldn't budge when you turn the bowl upside down. Whisk in the vinegar.
2 egg whites, 90 g golden caster sugar, 20 g light muscovado sugar, ½ tsp wine vinegar
Roughly grind the nuts in a spice grinder or small food processor, then fold into the meringue.
50 g hazelnuts
Line a baking sheet with baking paper and spread the meringue out into a rectangle or round about 1 ½ deep (¾ inch).
Place the meringue in the oven, close the door and immediately turn the heat down to 140℃ (120℃ fan, 275℉, Gas 1). Bake for about thirty minutes or until the meringue is crisp and golden, but not too dark. Place on a wire rack to cool.
Once cool, remove the baking paper and place on a suitably sized platter.
Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Stir in the yoghurt. Spread over the cooled meringue base.
200 ml double cream (heavy cream), 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
Drizzle some of the sauce over the top and scatter with the remaining blackberries.
150 g blackberries
Serve with the remaining sauce in a jug alongside.
Blackberry Sauce
Blitz the blackberries in a blender or food processor along with the sugar and liqueur.
200 g blackberries, 25 g golden caster sugar, 2 tbsp crème de mûres
Press through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Notes
Increase the ingredients proportionally to serve more people. There should be enough blackberry sauce, however, for eight.You can whip the cream and make the blackberry sauce whilst the meringue is cooking.For extra pizazz, scatter some chopped toasted hazelnuts over the top along with the blackberries.Swap the blackberries for raspberries and add framboise to the sauce instead of crème de mûre.Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.