A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Sunday 9 June 2013

42. Basic White Meringues

Hurrah! I have finally completed my first 'section' of the project. When I started, I decided to bake the first recipe in each chapter; it's taken me all this time to complete those first recipes, with lots of hopping in between! It's not been easy finding an excuse to make these meringues as they're certainly not the sort of thing Joe and I would happily munch through, particularly because neither of us are that fussed about them. But an opportunity presented itself in the form of a birthday party for the daughter of some friends of ours, so I set to work. I established that these were Swiss meringues, made by whisking the egg whites (3) for ages and then adding caster sugar a teaspoon at a time (yes, really). They were then piped into circles on baking trays and baked for an hour. The recipe stated that they could bake for up to 90 minutes, but after an hour we decided they were 'cream in colour' and they did come away from the trays without sticking. I left them in the oven overnight to cool and dry out.

The meringues were very easy to make, and I didn't even fret too much about the piping of them. This was the first time I'd used the piping bag and apart from needing the husband to assemble it for me (!), I found it very easy to use. I drew a line at the top of the baking parchment to measure the diameter and made my first meringue the guide for the rest. I was only left with a little mixture by the time I'd piped the 18 shells. The recipe suggested sandwiching them together with whipped cream, which I did the next day. I added 2 slices of strawberry to each one for a bit of extra colour and flavour, but made the terrible mistake of slicing them on the chopping board we use for the onions! Sure enough, they had a distinct oniony flavour, which didn't permeate the cream or the meringue, but did make the strawberries taste rather odd! Other than that, they were pretty successful really. I'm not a meringue expert, but others who tried them said that they were as meringues should be; nice and crisp on the outside, but fluffy on the inside.
Baker's verdict: a technical hurdle overcome without any difficulty. I'd be willing to make these again now that I've had a go at them.
Husband rating: 7/10 - lovely and fluffy inside; don't normally like meringues but they were very moreish and went well with the cream. Would have got 7.5 if the strawberries hadn't tasted of onion!
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