Thursday 10 March 2011

Meringue Mushrooms


I love meringue.  Mainly because of all the things you can make out of it.  Mushrooms are fun.  Plus any ones that get “accidently broken” can be turned into perfect one person portions of Eton Mess. 

Ingredients
2 egg whites
100gr caster sugar
¼ tsp white wine vinegar
Melted chocolate (for gluing the caps to the stems)

Method
1, Make sure that your bowl and whisk/whisk attachment is spotlessly clean.
2, Beat the egg whites until they are foamy and add in the vinegar.
3, Carry on beating the egg whites until they reach soft peaks.
4, Turn the speed up and slowly start adding in the caster sugar.
5, Carry on beating the mixture until you can rub a tiny bit between your fingers and it doesn’t feel grainy. 
6, Preheat your oven to 100o/c
7, Line two backing sheets with non-stick or greaseproof paper
8, Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle. 
9, Pipe stems by holding the piping bag vertically and evenly squeezing the bag and lifting the nozzle.  This will give you a little pillar of meringue.  Use a finger dipped in water to flatten the top of the pillar.
10, To pipe caps, again hold the piping bag vertically to the lined baking tray and squeeze.  Let the meringue form a little disc, keep squeezing and lift the piping bag slowly.  Again, use a damp finger to smooth out any peaks or ripples that may have formed.



11, Bake for 2 hours, turn off the oven, leave them to cool completely before removing from the trays.
12, Use the melted chocolate as glue to stick the caps to the stems.  Dust with a little cocoa powder for a mushroomy look.

Original recipe here



You can colour the meringue to make coloured tops too.  Divide it, pipe stems, reserve a little white meringue for detailing, colour the remaining and pipe caps and then clean out and reload the bag with a small tip and the white meringue.  Pipe little dots over the surface of the coloured caps and use a damp finger to gently smooth down any peaks.  Cook as before. 

*hums the Mario theme tune*


14 comments:

  1. Oh I love these, they are so cute!

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  2. These are absolutely adorable! What a creative idea!

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  3. Ooh could you imagine these served up as part of a Madhatters Teaparty?! Fabulous and so sweet

    carol

    www.dormouseandtheteapot.blogspot.com

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  4. Now these are FUN! Great photos. Love your creativity!

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  5. What a gorgoeus idea, I love it!

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  6. Awwww they are too adorable! Very nice :)

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  7. Thanks everyone! They keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container (and are actually for an Alice in Wonderland themed cake I'm doing! Great minds think alike Carol!)

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  8. excellent - love the meringue mushrooms.... especially the red ones with spotty tops :-)

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  9. Aww I love the mushrooms, so cute looking!

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  10. They are adorable!! i love the white and red ones, so cute

    <3

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  11. It was wondering if I could use this write-up on my other website, I will link it back to your website though.Great Thanks. Where to buy magic mushrooms

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