Meringues

Meringues always reminded me of clouds...as a child I was convinced that it was indeed magical fingers that managed to produce these light airy confections...always confused between meringues and the macaroons so famous in Sivakasi and Tirupur...I now as an adult know the difference between the two !!!
Macaroons for us as children were always referred to as Tirupur biscuit ,I was amazed to learn recently that a few of my friends had fond memories of the'tirupur biscuit'...brought to us by a doting family from Tirupur and thus having earned the name !!!
I guess there began our fondness for egg white confectionery...be it meringues,macaroons,nougats...we loved it all ! I was so excited the first time I successfully baked my meringues...one would've thought I'd won gold at the Olympics....boy was I happy !!!! That happiness however paled in comparison to the pure joy expressed by the kids,their friends and my mom after taking their first bite....no wonder I keep experimenting...wonderful to pass on food tales to the next generation ! Do try the meringue recipe and smile as much as I did ;)))))))
Meringues
 Egg whites 3
Castor sugar-220 gms
Vanilla essence-2 tsp- I prefer to use as i don't like them smelling eggy !!!!
Food processor....you can try with a hand beater.
Method
Heat oven to 180 degrees
Add the egg whites to a clean stainless steel bowl...make sure the bowl is clean and dry and also that there is no yolk in the egg whites.
Beat the egg whites until they are a thick white cloud and form soft peaks,when lifted with a whisk
Then as you continue beating,add the sugar gradually tsp by tsp until it's all added.
You will now find that it's changed to a glossy white rather than a frothy white...beautiful !
Now gently fold in the vanilla by hand,very gently.
You can spoon onto a tray lined with grease proof paper or like I do...dollop into muffin cups...easy to serve..no mess !!!
Put them into the oven and turn the temp down to 160 degrees
After 15-20 mts ,you will see that they have turned matt ...let them bake until you see a crack forming
Now,turn off the oven and let them dry out in the warm oven for a half an hour or 40 mts
What this does,it keeps the outside crisp and the inside a bit chewy and almost hollow...airy fairy like :D

Looks quite delicious doesn't it....and it's just a tiny tsp of egg white and sugar/meringue ! Fantastic !

 And now you see what damage little hands can do...with strawberries and chocolate and meringue !!!! Sighhhh....I try...I really do ;P ...meringues topped with stewed fruit and cream is a great dessert !!!

On the 21st of Dec...I was asked by my friend and fello foodie to enter a baking contest which I gladly accepted...not knowing,until later,her brief,that it had to be a tad creative...now that posed a bit of a problem as the one thing I did not have on my hands that day was time !!!! I'm sharing this with you,because thanks to her,I managed to put up something that made everyone smile and I even won a prize for it...reminds me of a saying..."where there is a will there is a way" and my will was simply to do justice to her contest !!!

Santa's magic Winterland

So Santa's Magic Winter land comprised of meringue mountains...strawberry santas who turned blue because i forgot to keep aside some white butter cream frosting...well !!!! No ! actually the Santas were a tad cold!!!  you see ...no one knits Santa a sweater ;P Anyways...it was a lot of fun !!!!

The one thing that a food blogger like me,looks forward to are feedback from my readers...I recently received some photos of this meringue recipe tried by a reader...I do need to share them with you !!!
you can see that she enjoyed making them simply by the way they've been photographed and presented ! Looking forward to hearing from many of you as well !!!

Meringue recipe tried by Priya Satish

Priya's PLT meringues