Catherine Fulvio's Hazelnut Meringue with Summer Berries from Tastes Like Home.
Ingredients
Serves: 2 individual medium-sized or 1 large meringue
For the meringue:
- 6 large egg whites
- 300g caster sugar
- 1⁄2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 60g toasted chopped hazelnuts
For the filling:
- 200ml cream
- 150g mascarpone
- 4 tbsp icing sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of third of the lemon
For the berry coulis:
- 200g strawberries
- 200g raspberries
- 75g caster sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Arrowroot to thicken
To decorate:
- 100g blueberries
- 150g raspberries
- 150g strawberries, sliced
- Edible flowers, lemon balm and a few sprigs of rosemary, to finish
Method
For the meringues:
- Preheat the oven to 120°C/fan 100°C/gas 1. Line 2 x 23cm loose base springform tins with parchment paper.
- Place the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl, whisk until stiff but not dry. Gradually whisk in the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Beat in the vanilla, the cream of tartar and most of the chopped hazelnuts.
- Divide the meringue mixture into the two tins ensuring they are level on top, scatter the remaining hazelnuts over and place into the preheated oven.
- Bake for 2 hours until set. When they're done, leave them in the oven with the oven door slightly open so that the meringues can cool.
For the coulis:
- Place the strawberries and raspberries into a saucepan with sugar. Set over a medium heat. Crush with a wooden spoon or fork until the sugar has dissolved and the berries broken down.
- At this point, taste and add a little more sugar, depending on the acidity of the berries.
- Strain through a sieve, then return to the saucepan, adding in the zest of lemon and thickening lightly with the arrowroot (the arrowroot get mixed with a little cold water and then added to the coulis and heated through).
- Set aside and allow to cool fully
For the cream filling:
- Whisk the cream, mascarpone, lemon zest, juice and icing sugar until firm peaks. Then swirl in about 1/4 of the coulis (keeping some pink streaks in the cream mix).
- To assemble: place each on a serving platter, spoon the berry cream mix over, top generously with the fresh fruit and decorate with the fresh herbs and edible flowers.
- Serve the remaining coulis on the side.
Tip: the tidiest method to drizzle the coulis is to fill a disposable piping bag and snip a tiny piece from the tip, thus giving a light drizzle for decorating.
