A delicious recipe for strawberry and black pepper meringue kisses from Alex Hoffler and Stacey O’Gorman, ‘The Meringue Girls’
Strawberry & Black Pepper Meringue Kisses
Makes approx 50 kisses
Ingredients:
For the meringues:
150g egg whites
300g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
For the Strawberry & Black Pepper Flavouring:
50g frozen strawberries
Pinch of sugar
1/4 tsp course ground black pepper
1) Firstly, make the strawberry coulis by heating up the strawberries with a pinch of sugar in a pan until broken down, then whizzing them into a thick paste. Cool in the fridge.
2) Line a deep tray with baking paper and heat 300g caster sugar at 200C until the edges are just beginning to melt. Heating the sugar helps it to dissolve in the egg white more quickly, creating a glossy and more stable mixture. Now, turn the oven down to 100C.
3) Add egg whites to clean bowl of a KitchenAid with 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar. At first whisk slowly allowing small stabilising bubbles to form, then increase the speed until the egg whites form medium peaks.
5) Using a large spoon, add the sugar spoon by spoon while continuing to whisk. It is ready once you have a full bodied, stiff and glossy mixture (about 5 minutes). Stir through 1 tbsp of the cooled strawberry coulis with a sprinkling of black pepper to taste.
6) Turn a disposable piping bag inside out, and use a paintbrush to paint stripes of red natural food colouring on the inside. Fill the piping bag ensuring there are no air bubbles, and cut the tip off to the size of a 20p piece. Pipe small kisses onto a lined baking tray.
7) Bake for 30-40 minutes. We like to keep our meringues mallowy and soft in the middle, so take them out of the oven as soon as they lift off the baking paper with the base intact.
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