Meringues are a delight to eat. Crisp shells giving way to marshmallow soft interiors. Light as a wispy cloud, melt in the mouth and only made from two ingredients.How could they possibly be bettered? Well they can. Brown sugar meringues knock their white sugar buddies sideways. BOOSH!
Thanks to Diana Henry for enlightening me with her recipe for these caramel bombs of flavour. They are so sensational that eating them with just lightly whipped double cream and grated chocolate is heavenly but to take these meringues up a notch or two I would recommend eating them with grilled blood oranges and rhubarb.
Rhubarb & blood orange collage
Grilling fruit-especially rhubarb- is the only way I have found to keep the stalks perfectly uniform. Grilling fruit allows it to become glazed, sweetly softened and lightly bronzed in places. It only takes minutes to cook and any leftovers would make a light and refreshing dessert served with a few spoonfuls of thick yoghurt.
Brown sugar meringues
Forced rhubarb and blood oranges are both in season right now. The only trouble is, living where I live, I cannot find blood oranges for blood nor money ;)) I either have to order them via Ocado or get my husband to pop into Borough market on his lunch break. As fresh fruit goes, there is little better than a juicy blushing blood orange and they do happen to make a most harmonious partnership with forced rhubarb which is paler and more subtle in colour than regular rhubarb but also tender and sweet.
Here are a few more rhubarb and blood orange inspired recipes from around the web:
Blood orange rhubarb & cardamom marmalade – Laundry Etc
Rhubarb lemon & vanilla jam – Fab Food 4 All
Blood orange curd – Fuss Free Flavours
I am linking up to:
Simple and in Season – Maison Cupcake & Ren Behan
Bookmarked recipes – Tinned Tomatoes
Brown sugar meringues with grilled rhubarb & blood oranges
Ingredients
- For the meringues 🙂
- 3 Egg whites
- 1/2 tsp Ndali vanilla powder
- 160 g Light brown muscovado sugar
- For the grilled rhubarb & blood oranges 🙂
- 4 Sticks of forced rhubarb trimmed into 2 inch pieces,
- 4 Blood oranges peeled and sliced into discs,
- Demerara sugar for sprinkling
- For the whipped cream 🙂
- 300 ml Double cream lightly whipped into soft peaks
Instructions
-
For the meringues 🙂
-
Line a large baking tray with baking parchment,
-
Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees,
-
Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks and place the whites into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat the whites with a whisk attachment until they form stiff peaks,
-
Gradually add the sugar- spoon by spoon- to the egg whites and continue to whisk the whites until all of the sugar has been added then fold in the vanilla powder,
-
Using a spatula place dollops of the meringue onto the baking sheet, ensuring you have six equally sized meringues,
-
Place the meringues into the oven, turn the heat down to 130 degrees and bake for 1 hour then turn your oven off and leave the meringues to cool down in the oven.
-
For the grilled rhubarb & blood oranges 🙂
-
Line 2 baking sheets with tin foil and heat your grill to medium,
-
Place the fruits on separate baking sheets and sprinkle them generously with Demerara sugar,
-
Grill the fruits separately for approximately 10 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they do not burn. If the grill is too hot the fruit will burn, it needs to gently sizzle away before being removed to cool down.
-
For the whipped cream 🙂
-
Beat the double cream in a stand mixer or with a hand held whisk until soft peaks form.
-
You may want to add a spoon of icing sugar to sweeten up the cream (optional).
These look wonderful Laura. I am struggling to find blood oranges too : (
It is very frustrating having to order them but the Ocado ones from Natoora are very good at least.
Oh wow love the recipe and LOVE the photography! Great recipe links too.
Thanks Jan, I do love these colours together!
I’ve never had meringue made with brown sugar but it definitely sounds much tastier than the white variety! This looks absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks Becca, they are just so good!
Love this dessert and blood oranges are my favourite fruit that I find so difficult to source these days! I must admit meringues are on my to do list as I’ve only ever made Pavlova so really have to stop putting it off – madness I know! Thanks for linking to my jam:)
Wow Camilla you should really try these, you would love them!
The meringues look amazing, I’ve not made them with brown sugar but I bet they taste wonderfully caramelly. I’m not a fan of oranges though I do they think they look beautiful next to the pink rhubarb.
Thanks Jen, you should try out the meringues and maybe skip the oranges if you aren’t so keen, I don’t think it matters 🙂
Those blood oranges look amazing. Yum!
Thanks Dannii, they are amazing and so varied in colour.
My favourite kind of meringues – don’t make them very often but veggie teen begs for them!
The teen has excellent taste 😉
What a stunning post Laura… I love the look of this recipe. I never take the time to make meringues, but feel I could get quite into these ones!!! I’m moving to a house with a better oven, so will look forward to experimenting!!!
My meringues have improved since I have been using my new oven too so I hope you make loads more in your new house!
Wow, that looks truly mouthwatering. The meringues look amazing and blood oranges are so pretty.
Thanks Emily, it is the colours I love but it tastes great too 🙂
Such a sophisticated and pretty dessert. I love the colours here and meringue gets my vote every time!
Agree with you Nazima, meringues are irresistible!
Wow, these look lush. Your meringues remind me of the spectacular beauties found in France.
I love French patisseries more than anything Michelle, they are unbeatable!
these look delicious – I am not a huge meringue fan but I made my first meringues last month and am wondering about further experimentation – of course I would love them so much more with rhubarb and blood orange
Hi Johanna, thanks very much, I think you would enjoy these meringues too!