Traditional Meringues - quick to make, even quicker to eat!

Meringues are the most glorious inventions, and seem to be eaten faster than almost anything!   I don't know who first discovered that whisking egg whites with sugar produced such deliciousness, but they certainly deserve a place in pudding heaven....  I adore meringues, associating them with birthdays, as my mother made them for our parties - little tiny piped ones, like those in the photo.    Please note that these are NOTHING like the explosive solid meringues you buy!    As a keen pudding-maker, I always have lots of left-over egg whites, so can whip up a batch of meringues in minutes after cooking something else, and then put them into the cooling oven (and quite often forget them, but that's another story!).

Traditional Meringues

3 egg whites
6oz/170g caster sugar 

1 tsp vanilla (if wanted)

half pint of double cream

Oven - 150 deg C, turning down to 100 deg C when the meringues go in

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, preferably in an open mixer like a Kenwood or Kitchen Aid, instead of a closed food processor.    Add the sugar a tablespoonful at a time, still whisking.  Lastly, add the essence.    Line a large flat baking tray with silicone parchment, possibly two.  Using a piping bag with a .5” plain nozzle, pipe the meringue mixture on the baking tray to the size you want (or you can simply spoon the meringue onto the tray if you want a more rustic shape).  

Bake for about an hour, keeping an eye on them.   I like my meringues to be soft in the middle, but if you like them hard all the way through, and with a bit of colour, turn the oven off and leave them for longer.

Allow the meringues to cool on a wire rack.     Whip the double cream until it holds its shape, but is not stiff.   Line the meringues upside down, ready to grab.   Pipe a good blob of cream onto every other one, and stick them in pairs (obvious really, but I’ve sometimes been left with some odd combinations!).  Also, you could melt some dark chocolate and paint the base of each meringue.  When the chocolate has set, stick them together with cream.   This stops the meringues from going soft! 

Meringues can be stored in an air-tight tin, or even in the freezer.  Left-overs (if there are any) are fantastic in ice cream, or Eton Mess.