Strangely, I don’t seem to have posted the recipe for meringues which have been the hit of the summer, and when combined with strawberries/raspberries and cream, become Eton Mess! I almost wonder whether I should post this recipe as it may destroy the mystique, but in the spirit of public service and all that….

I have been using St Delia’s trusty recipe which is extraordinarily simple and takes 5 minutes. I strongly urge everyone to try making their own meringues as there is no comparison with the shop ones and they are dead easy! But you do really need an electric whisk.

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 40g caster sugar

Yeah, this is my kind of ingredients list! This makes about 8 medium-sized meringues. 2 of these is a perfect (i.e. quite generous) portion size for Eton Mess.

Method

• Preheat oven to 140C
• Put the egg whites in a big bowl
• Whisk on low for 2 min
• Whisk on medium for 1 min
• Whisk on high, gradually adding the sugar, for 1 min.

You should be left with a lovely glossy white mixture. Spoon it out onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Bung in the oven for 30 min, then turn the oven off. At this point you’re supposed to leave them in the oven for 4 hours. However I have frequently succumbed to temptation and begun guzzling well before that ;) They are crunchy on the outside, and gooey on the inside, just bloody wonderful for so little effort!

If you’re going to keep them (e.g. to have for breakfast the next day) then I suggest you store them in a box of some sort – they last at least a day but am not sure how much longer than that as this has never been an issue here at Leopard Towers ;)

_{edit: just discovered I did already post an entry about these a while back! but they’re so good I think they deserve a second one ;)}