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 )