Making meringues is fun. Witnessing globulous egg whites sprinkled with white white sugar triumphantly blossom into shiny amazing clouds is an extremely satisfying process. It's only made better with plum syrup, dark chocolate, pistachio nuts and having a face-smearing meringue mixture fight with your flatmate.
If you make them too big, and use too many egg whites, and they spectacularly slump into deflated sticky cowpats, never fear! Simply break them up and stir through some softly whipped cream and some chopped plums. Perfectly delicious dessert? Yes!
Plum, pistachio and dark chocolate meringues
4 egg whites - at room temperature and as fresh as possible for the best results I'm told1 cup caster sugar
about 3/4 - 1 cup of plum syrup from a can of black doris plums
about 100g roughly chopped dark chocolate
a handful of chopped pistachios
Beat egg whites until stiff, and then sprinkle over the sugar bit by bit, continuning the beating, then add the plum syrup and beat until glossy peaks form. According to cuisine you should have soft glossy peaks rather than sharp dry ones. Genntly fold through the pistachios and chocolate.
If you have any mixture left after inevitable fight and excessive consumption, continue...
Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking tray lined with paper. Bake at 120*C for 1-1 and a half hours, and then turn the oven off and leave them in for another hour at least.
Serve with creeeeeeeeeeeeam and more plums if you're so inclined. Enjoy!
YUM! And the other tip for meringues is never make them when it's raining or humid as they will weep (as will you)!
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