. In celebration of food and dining experiences .

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Chocolate Meringues and Spinach Sausage Tart

Of Meringues... Chocolate ones

J and I embarked on our experiment of baking chocolate meringues today. Though I've never been a fan of meringues, I always thought that they are gorgeous looking.

There are three reasons why I want to make meringues though I think that they are too sweet. First of all, I promised my cousin that I'll make him meringues when I get my new kitchenaid mixer (which isn't that new anymore). Secondly, I wanted to see how good the mixer is- how it is able to form peaks in the egg whites so I can turn the bowl over and nothing will fall out. Third of all, I just wanted to indulge my eyes on these pretty little things.

Sure enough, the journey of making meringues was as fun and beautiful as I thought it to be. I was enticed by the sight of the egg whites on how it became stiff, then smooth and almost cream-like. I was intrigued by how the meringues could feel so soft, silky and smooth to touch.

Instead of making plain meringues, I decided to add cocoa powder to give it an extra subtle chocolatey taste. For the first batch, we just spooned mixture onto the baking sheet so there came out looking like round discs.

The first batch

For the second batch, we used the piping bag and we got little swirls. Though I was worried about how they will turn out, the results were fantastic.

I read that some people like their meringues crusty all over while others loved them crusty on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.

My first batch was the all crusty ones while my second batch had a tinge of chewiness. I think I like the latter more.

Anyway, my family adores them. My sis who proclaimed that "nobody in this house likes meringues" earlier that morning had already gobbled down quite a few. With only two left, I think my meringues are in good business. There is still a box that I've kept for grace, hopefully, there are still there tomorrow.

The prettier ones with the swirls

A bite into the crusty shell

***

Meringues
Serves 6-8
(Adapted from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver)

6 large egg whites
300g castor sugar
a pinch of salt

1. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees C.
2. Put your egg whites in a bowl and make sure that there are absoultely no little pieces of egg shell or egg yolk in them.
3. Whisk on medium until the whites form firm peaks. (You must be able to turn the bowl upside down with nothing falling out)
4. With your mixer still running, gradually add the sugar and pinch of salt.
5. Turn the mixer to the highest setting and whisk for 7 to 8 minutes or until the meringue mixture is white and glossy. Dip your finger into the mixture and rub between your fingers. It should feel perfectly smooth.
6. At this point, you can add in some flavours. For me, I've added in 2 tbsp of cocoa powder, sifted.
7. Fold in the cocoa powder
8. Spoon the meringue mixture onto prepared baking tray in one big blob or small ones (like I've done)
9. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes (if you are making the tiny ones)

***

A tart in time,
serves the hungry

In the meantime, J and I also baked a tart. All this time, we have been baking sweet stuffs like muffins, cakes, mousse and we have seldom baked something savoury like a tart or pie.

So on Sunday morning, we decided to bake spinach, sausage and mozzerella cheese tart. Basically, you just need to make the dough for the crust, sliced and cook the ingredients, roll out the dough, dumped the ingredients in and bake!

And there you have it.. a tart to feed 6-8 people.It's pretty simple but time consuming.

We should have made a little more of the crust(2 portions maybe) but other than that, all at home are stuffed with tarts.

Spinach and bratwurst sausage tart

link | posted by simin at 4:47 PM |

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