Easy Chocolate Meringue Sandwich Recipe

Yay it's the weekend. Another excuse for me to cook something sweet to make my dentist wince. Meringues are notorious for being a bit tricky, but if all goes wrong you can always make an Eton Mess with the left overs.

This recipe is super duper easy and would be great if you add colouring and a different cream for the centre. Everyone who ate them here loved them so no complaints, phew!

Prep time: 15 minutes     Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 225g caster sugar
• 1/4 double cream
• Plain chocolate or 1 tablespoon of drinking chocolate

 Instructions

1. Line two trays with non stick baking paper and heat the oven to 120C/Fan 100C.
2. Put the egg whites into an oven glass mixing bowl or a sturdy bowl and whisk with a rotary whisk until stiff. It is important to make sure they are stiff before you follow the next part.
3. Continue to whisk whilst adding a tablespoon of sugar and whisking well before the next tablespoon is added.
4. After all the sugar has been added, using two wet desert spoons, spoon the meringue onto the baking trays. You can also use a pipe to transfer the mixture and look more professional than me.
5. Sprinkle the meringues with a little caster sugar and leave them in the oven for an hour or until they are crisp.
6. Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool down.
7. Melt some chocolate and the cream in a saucepan and mix till all chocolate is melted. Leave to cool down.
8. Once cool and a bit gloopy, grab two meringues and sandwich them with the filling.
9. Et voila. Impress your guests or just eat them all to yourself.

Notes

• If you feel that your whites aren't being very peaky...add a squeeze of lemon juice or white wine vinegar to help them along. This snack would be nicely accompanied with tea and a romantic comedy. 

 

Marie Antoinette Chocolate Tea Cups Recipe

So this is the first recipe post I have published and also my first attempt at 'proper' food photography using my trusty DSLR. Well today's recipes is 'Chocolate Teacups' inspired by the film Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola. Sure, I could have made Macaroons but that would have been so obvious, plus I needed something a little bit classy and had to put these Doulton cups to good use instead of gathering dust. Don't worry, I cleaned them out before I filled them with chocolate.

In the historical context, Marie Antoinette apparently loved chocolate and in the 18th Century, it was primarily taken in liquid form much like a thick Majorcan hot chocolate. This recipe is chocolate set in a cup and it is rich in taste, hence the tiny cups. It has a more creamy than mousse like texture to it.

Prep time: 10 minutes      Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients 

• 170-200 grams of chocolate ( I used Green & Blacks Organic Milk Chocolate )
• 1/2 oz. butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon coffee essence ( optional or any other flavorings that you like )
• Chocolate to decorate

Instructions

1. Break up the chocolate and place the pieces and butter in a bowl placed over a pan of hot, not boiling water. Leave to dissolve whilst stirring often. 
2. Once the chocolate and butter have completely dissolved, remove it from the heat and beat in the egg yolks and add any flavoring or essence you are using. 
3. Whisk in the egg whites till stiff then fold them into the chocolate mixture.
4. Pour into 4 small cups ( or 2 larger ones ) and leave in a cool place to set.
5. Just before serving, top them up with chocolate curls 

Notes

• After pouring the chocolate into the cups and letting them cool, I put them in the fridge for a couple of hours for a nice chilled chocolate desert. This would be nicely accompanied with short bread and Marie Antoinette in the DVD player.

 images above of Marie Antoinette Film Grabs via tumblr.com