Lavender Meringues - light and flowery

So, as my first meringue experiment, these turned out quite tasty! Maybe a little bit strong on the lavender, but at the moment, I so love the flavour and I ate almost all of them in no time at all. Of course, I did share a few of them!

For my baking day with my friend, I read up on a few different meringue recipes and found one that worked for me, with a couple of little tweaks. These would be perfect for a summery day, with a glass of chilled white wine or Pimms. Alternatively,as it's still winter, they seem to go fantastically well with a cup of chai tea. (They tasted fab at breakfast time too. Just maybe not the best sugary treat for that time of the morning!)

My first ever meringues!

Ingredients

3 large egg whites

6oz (175g) sugar

Pinch of salt 

1 - 2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers (depending on taste)

Tiny drop of vanilla essence (optional)

drop of blue food colouring (optional)

drop of red food colouring (optional)

Directions

• Heat the oven to gas mark 1 (140oC)
• Prepare a baking tray with a lining of greaseproof paper
• Whisk the egg whites in a bowl. Preferably with an electric whisk.Start on a low speed for approx 1 minute and then slowly increase the speed.
• Whisk for about 2 - 3 minutes until the egg whites form peaks when the whisk is raised out of the mixture.
• Whisk in the sugar, a tablespoon or equal amounts at a time. Whisk until the mixture becomes glossy.
• Add the lavender flowers at this time. Whisk in the drop of vanilla essence with the flowers. The essence is optional but taste rather nice.
• Add a drop of red food colouring and a drop of blue food colouring. Mix this in and you should get a lovely, pale lavender colour. Or you can leave them white.
• Spoon the mixture out onto the baking sheet using metal spoons, forming neat blobs of meringue. 
• Pop the tray and meringues into the centre of the pre-heated oven for around 30 - 40 minutes, or until the meringues look paler and dried out.
• Once ready, take them out of the oven and leave them to cool on the tray.

You can always keep the meringues for a week or so in an air tight tin. If you have any left of course!

Perfect with a cup of tea.


(Recipe adapted from a couple of sources:
http://beingcreative.me.uk/the-basic-meringue-recipe.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lavendercreammeringu_91783 )

Baking with friends is good for your health!

I can't believe I've been so lazy at blogging! How shameful. I must do better in 2012.


To kick start the year, my friend Ruth and I decided to have a baking day. A relaxed, gentle day of baking delicious and tasty goods while drinking tea, trying new recipes and chatting. Well,three out of four isn't bad. We certainly baked some fantastic treats and we definitely chatted and tried out new recipes. The tea? Well......

A slight variation on a snowball to help with the baking. No tea!

I have never tried making meringues, so after exploring a few different recipes, I thought I'd try lavender meringues. I also had a go at mint macaroons and my tried my hand at my first ever  Bakewell Pudding (not tart!). Ruth baked a rather tasty walnut and treacle cake and also some muffin sized chocolate and chai tea cupcakes. The macaroons were quite difficult, but would have been easier if I'd used the piping bag properly. As it was, I filled it to the brim, resulting in the squidgy goodness escaping everywhere. I haven't actually used a piping bag since I was about 10 years old. Well, that's my excuse!


I can highly recommend a day spent baking with a good friend. Very relaxing and enjoyable! The trick is then to invite more friends round to help you eat them. If there are any left that is. 

Ruth, contemplating the next ingredient

I MUST learn how to use a piping bag!

The finished products!