Inspired by an almost daily visit to the St Ives bakery on holiday, the first bake I’ve made after returning home is giant meringues. I’ve added a little photo of their glorious bakery window below so you can see why I was so inspired!
This is a standard French meringue, but it takes much longer at a lower heat to bake (or rather ‘dry out’) in the oven because of the size.
The exterior is a crispy shell and inside it’s almost chocolate toffee 🙂
Notes
- Makes four massive meringues (about 15cm across).
- You can make lots of little meringues, but turn the heat up to 110C fan/120 conventional and just cook for 50 mins.
- Alternatively, can be made into one giant Pavlova (I’ve found the cooking time and temperature can be kept the same).
- Because of how long it takes to cook, it might be worth doing this the night before you want it
Equipment
- Bowl
- Whisk
- Flexible spatula
- Lined baking sheets
Ingredients
- Egg whites – 6 from medium to large eggs
- Caster sugar – 320g
- Cocoa powder – 30g
- Vanilla bean paste – 1/2 teaspoon (or half a bean pod’s worth of seeds)
- Chocolate shavings – about 60g
Method
- Turn the oven on to 90C fan / 100C conventional
- Whip up the egg whites to stiff-ish peaks
- Tip about a fifth or so of the caster sugar in while continuing to whisk until combined, then continue adding the rest in small batches until all combined
- Add the vanilla bean paste and whisk through
- Turn off your whisk and add the cocoa powder and the chocolate shavings – turn this through the meringue with the flexible spatula, as it’s nice to get uneven thicknesses of the cocoa and chocolate
- Spoon a quarter of the meringue onto the baking tray – it will make four large mounds, so repeat this three more times
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour 20 mins, then turn the oven off and leave for another 1 – 2 hours or overnight in the oven
Ink Sugar Spice ~ Lynn Clark 
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