I love meringue … it is easy to make and ticks a few boxes when looking for a gluten free dish.
These “meringue bites” were created to give me a little “morsel” to offer guests with coffee for a morning or afternoon tea, or at the end of a meal instead of chocolate (which I do love too!).
The combination of brown sugar and raw sugar gives these bites a slight caramel tone which is quite delicious … and very more’ish so be warned!
Simple to make and they keep for at least four weeks in the pantry in a sealed container.
As with all meringue mixes, it is important to prepare your ™ bowl to remove any residue of fat that may be in there … to do this add 1 litre of water and 30g vinegar to your ™ bowl and cook 10 minutes / Veroma / speed 2. Decant the water, rinse with cold water to cool the bowl down, and wipe out with a clean cloth. Once cool you can prepare your meringue. I usually do this a couple of hours before I make my meringue so that I don’t need to wait for the bowl to cool down.
It takes 3 hours for the meringue to cook, so start this recipe earlier in the day if you need your oven in the evening.
Meringue can also affected by moisture on humid days, so you may find that they can become a little sticky when left to sit on a serving plate for too long, so to combat this I usually dust mine lightly in icing sugar before storing as that will keep them “dry”. Then I can simply take them straight from my container to serve when needed over the next month or so. But this is totally optional.
As you are cooking a meringue at a higher temperature in your ™ bowl when making these bites (different temperature to when you make a pavlova) you will get some meringue cooked onto the base of your bowl … to clean your bowl easily simply add water to just level to the top of your blades, add a dash of detergent, and heat 1 minute / 60 degrees / speed 6 … wash your bowl out using a non-scratch scourer or ™ brush and the residue should come off quite easily.
- 75g light muscovado sugar, or brown sugar
- 75g raw sugar
- 65g to 75g egg whites (from 2 egg whites), room temperature
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Icing sugar for dusting, optional
- Preheat oven to 100 degrees fan forced, and arrange rack into middle of oven
- Line a large baking tray with baking paper (use a dab of oil under the paper to hold it into place)
- Prepare your piping bag with the nozzle of choice and put aside ready to take the meringue when it is made (I use a size 11 nozzle, but use whatever size you like)
- Place sugars into TM bowl and mill 10 seconds / speed 10, put aside into a separate container
- Insert butterfly whisk
- Add egg whites and cream of tartar to TM bowl and whisk 2 minutes / 60 / speed 3 / no MC
- Add vanilla and set the Thermomix to whisk 2 minutes / 60 / speed 3 / no MC
- In this first 2 minutes, start to immediately add the sugar a tablespoon at a time through the hole in lid
- Open lid and scrape any sugar that has landed on the butterfly into the mix
- Continue mixing for a further 5 minutes / 60 / speed 3 / no MC
- Place meringue into piping bag, and remove any large air bubbles before piping … to do this I place the piping bag on its side on the bench, and use my hand or a scraper to push the mixture towards the nozzle … if there are large air pockets you will find it hard to get a nice even shape in your “bites” as you pipe out the meringue
- Pipe mixture onto the baking tray allowing 3cm space between them for a slight expansion (as they are small you should get up to 30 onto a large tray, I pipe 6 across, and 5 rows down on a single tray)
- Place tray into oven and bake for 3 hours … open the door and test a meringue … you should be able to lift it off the baking paper, if not close the door and bake a further 30 minutes if needed
- Remove tray, and place meringues onto a cooling rack to come to room temperature (this won’t take long, about 20 to 30 minutes)
- Once cool store in an airtight container where they will keep for at least four weeks
- If desired, dust meringues in a little icing sugar … this helps to keep them “dry”, and also remove any chance of them becoming a little “sticky” if left out on a serving plate for too long in humid weather … but this is totally optional
It takes 3 hours for the meringue to cook, so start this recipe earlier in the day if you need your oven in the evening.
Meringue can also affected by moisture in humid weather, so you may find that they can become a little sticky when left to sit on a serving plate for too long, so to combat this I usually dust mine lightly in icing sugar before storing as that will keep them "dry". I can then simply take them straight from my container to serve when needed over the next month or so. But this is totally optional.
As you are cooking a meringue at a higher temperature in your ™ bowl when making these bites (different temperature to when you make a pavlova) you will get some meringue cooked onto the base of your bowl ... to clean your bowl easily simply add water to just level with the top of your blades, add a dash of detergent, and heat 1 minute / 60 degrees / speed 6 ... wash your bowl out using a non-scratch scourer or ™ brush and the residue should come off quite easily.
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