Meringue Cookies

Mmm! Very nice and elegant cookies! Equally sweet and sour. Though if You don't like the sour taste of lemon, the filling may be different, as a lot of fillings match here :) 

And - If You're running out of time, there is no need to bake a home-made meringues, as they're available in most supermarkets.

Those cookies - smaller or bigger - will wonderfully decorate the table. 

I think a pyramid of sweet meringues on a big white plate, on a wedding table would look just purely perfect .. don't You think? :)

Recipe for meringues, slightly changed, comes from that website.

Ingredients:

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites 
• 200g of sugar (finely ground)
• a pinch of salt

Lemon curd:

• 3 eggs 
• lemon zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons 
• 100g of powdered sugar 
• 100g of cool butter 

Additional ingredients:

• food colouring (powdered or gel)

Preparation:

Meringue:

1. Prepare a baking sheet, cover with baking paper.  Draw a lot of small circles all over the baking sheet, leaving some space between those circles (diameter: max 5 cm). Put aside. 
2. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites and salt inside, start beating. After a while, start adding sugar, one tablespoon after another, mixing precisely all the time. The beating should take 10-15 minutes, not less. The meringue after the beating should be stiff and shiny and sugar should dissolve completely. 
3. Here is a good time to add food colouring, as much as you wish, and mixing precisely. Note that the colour will fade a little bit due to the baking process, so add a little bit more of it, not to be dissapointed with the final colour of the cookies.
4. Using a syringe, distribute the meringue on the baking sheet, on previously drawn circles. 
5. Put in the oven and bake for 60-90 minutes (or a little bit longer) in 120C. After that time, meringue cookies should be crunchy. 
6. After baking, keep in a room temperature, till the filling is ready.

Lemon curd:

Lemon curd requires a 'bath' so it is necessary to have a suitable pot and a bowl, that can be put one on another.

1. Chop the butter into smaller pieces. 
2. Take a pot, put some water inside, start boiling it. 
3. Take a bowl that matches the pot, put eggs inside, beat. 
4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar and stir till everything links and there are no lumps. 
5. Now put the bowl on the top of your pot (make sure the bowl stands out from the pot so that you don't get burn) and slowly keep heating up the mixture (don't boil it). 
6. Keep adding the butter, one piece after another, stiring after adding. 
7. When all the butter is melted in the mixture, turn off the heat and put the bowl with lemon curd somewhere aside, to let it cool down. 
8. Then put your lemon curd in the fridge so that it stiffens more. 

Finishing:

1. Take a meringue, distribute some filling on its bottom and link with another small meringue cookie.
2. Bon Appetit! :)

Tropical Pavlova

I have no idea why I was hesitating for such long time... this is absolutely gorgeous... It exceeded all my expectations :) not only its appearance on the table is wonderful but the taste is just overdelicious! sweet meringue with tropical fruits! this is a real feast for senses ;) I do recommend! :) 

For those afraid of baking a meringue - here is a tip - you can buy a ready-made one in a good bakery ;) And they are probably available in a few sizes - you can make a couple of small pavlovas or one, very big :) all of them will be same delicious :)

Recipe for the meringue comes from this website, the rest is my idea, as Pavlova might be prepared in plenty different ways and will always taste good :)

Note: meringue and lemon curd might be prepared earlier. But - lemon curd must be stored in a closed box, in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites from 4 big eggs 
• 250g of sugar 
• 1 teaspoon of potato starch 
• 1 teaspoon of white or rice vinegar 

Lemon curd:

• 3 eggs 
• lemon zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons 
• 100g of powdered sugar 
• 100g of cool butter 

Whipped cream:

• 500 ml of 36% cream 
• 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar 
• 1-2 packages of powdered whipped cream (to stiffen the whipped cream, or polish smietan-fix*) 

* remember to stick to the proportions while using powdered products. If powder package says it is enough for 200 ml of cream/milk (no difference), and you're using 500ml of cream - add 2 packages.

Top:

• Tropical fruit (any, tinned or fresh) 
• peach 
• mango 
• passionfruit 
• lychee 
• pineapple 
• guava 
• ... :) 
• a handful of shredded coconut, to sprinkle the top 

Preparation:

Meringue:

1. Preheat the oven to 120C (without convection, just this time) 
2. Prepare a baking sheet, cover with baking paper. Draw a circle (diameter: for M size eggs - 18 cm, for L size eggs - 20 cm). Put aside. 
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside, start beating. After a while, start adding sugar, one tablespoon after another, stiring precisely all the time. The beating should take 10-15 minutes, not less. The meringue after the beating should be stiff and shiny. 
4. When done, add potato starch and vinegar and beat for another few minutes so that it links. 
5. Using a spoon or spatula, distribute the meringue on the baking sheet, on the drawn circle. Pull up the sides. (please don't play with it much, just few good moves, because the meringue might be destroyed). 
6. Put in the oven and bake for 30 min in 120C. After that time, lower the temperature to 100C and bake for another 3 hours. 

Lemon curd:

Lemon curd requires a 'bath' so it is necessary to have a suitable pot and a bowl, that can be put one on another.

1. Chop the butter into smaller pieces. 
2. Take a pot, put some water inside, start boiling it. 
3. Take a bowl that matches the pot, put eggs inside, beat. 
4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar and stir till everything links and there are no lumps. 
5. Now put the bowl on the top of your pot (make sure the bowl stands out from the pot so that you don't get burn) and slowly keep heating up the mixture (don't boil it). 
6. Keep adding the butter, one piece after another, stiring after adding. 
7. When all the butter is melted in the mixture, turn off the heat and put the bowl with lemon curd somewhere aside, to let it cool down. 
8. Then put your lemon curd in the fridge so that it stiffens more. 

Finishing:

1. Prepare fruit. If fresh - wash, peel (if necessaroy) and chop. Dry them on a paper towel. Put aside for a while. If tinned - half of the job is already done - just chop and dry. 
2. When the meringue is baked and cooled down, distribute cooled down lemon curd all over the top. 
3. Now, prepare whipped cream going through the steps below:
   
   Whipped cream: 
   1. Before preparing the whipped cream make sure your cream is really, really cool (I always put it in the freezer before beating, for around 10-15 minutes). 
   2. Take a mixer and its bowl, put cream inside, start mixing. After a while add powdered sugar and something to stiffen it (powdered whipped cream/smietan-fix). 
   3. Beat for around 10 minutes (depending on the power of a mixer it might take more or less time, keep paying attention not to make butter).
   
   
4. Distribute whipped cream all over the top. 
5. Just for the sake of safety, dry all the fruit again on a paper towel, before putting them on the meringue with whipped cream (as the juice from fruit may destroy both whipped cream and meringue). Make any pattern you wish out of the fruit. 
6. Sprinkle with shredded coconut. 
7. Store in the fridge. 
8. Bon Appetit! ;) 

(Easter) Peach Muffins

Very nice ones, might serve Easter occasion easily :) I like the taste - sweet, thanks to soft, delicate whipped cream, moist cake with delicious fruit and to make a nice contrast to that sweetness -sour lemon curd. Mmmm!
These might be filled with different ingredients. The original recipe is with advocaat, though for the sake of children and family members who needed to drive a car, I made them with peaches :) The dough is actually weird - it is very thick and sticky, but after baking turns out very nice - soft and moist (that's probably thanks to peaches ;)). I know you might be tempted to make a swiss buttercream for the top, but I'd recommend stiff whipped cream, as buttercream would make them very heavy.

To prepare these cute cupcakes I mixed recipes from here and here and added a little bit of my own creativity ;)

Ingredients:

Muffin dough:

• 120g of butter
• 110g of sugar
• 2 big eggs (or 3 smaller ones)
• 200g of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 3 teaspoons of advocaat (for the dough, not for the filling, but this is optional, I skipped it)

Filling - ideas:

• 1 tin of peaches cut into smaller pieces (and a little bit dried on a paper towel)
• advocaat
• vanilla custard (previously prepared, for example from this recipe)
• lemon curd 
• apricot

Lemon curd:

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• lemon zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons
• 100g of powdered sugar
• 100g of cool butter

Topping:

• 250ml of 36% cream
• 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• something to stiffen it - either so-called 'smietan-fix' or for example 'fake-powdered-whipped cream' (a powder you mix with milk to get a whipped cream ;) it stiffens the cream as well) or 1 teaspoon of gelatin - though here be careful not to make lumps

Preparation - muffin dough:

1. All the ingredients should be in room temperature.
   During that time you can prepare your muffin tins, greasing them with butter or just simply putting paper muffin cases into every hole. If you decided to use peaches - open the tin, take everything out of it as it isn't healthy to keep food in an open tin, separate the syrup from the fruit. Using a paper towel, dry the fruit and chop into smaller pieces.
2. Sieve the flour with baking powder and put aside.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl. Chop the butter into smaller pieces, add sugar and mix till you get a bright, fluffy mixture.
4. Add eggs, one after another, mixing precisely after adding one.
5. Add flour with baking powder, mix on a low rotation till everything links. 
6. Here you can add advocaat to the dough and mix till it links or you can skip that step.
7. Using a teaspoon, put some dough (+ - 1 teaspoon) to every paper case. Then add the filling and cover with another teaspoon. Don't be afraid while adding the filling - it is really fine to put quite a lot of it (I added 4 peach pieces into every muffin and they seem to get lost in the dough anyway ;))
8. Put the muffins in the oven for around 15-20 minutes, on 180C, till they get gold and the toothpick is dry.
9. Cool down.

Preparation - lemon curd:

Lemon curd requires a 'bath' so it is necessary to have a suitable pot and a bowl, that can be put one on another.

1. Chop the butter into smaller pieces.
2. Take a pot, put some water inside, start boiling it.
3. Take a bowl that matches the pot, put eggs inside, beat.
4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar and stir till everything links and there are no lumps.
5. Now put the bowl on the top of your pot (make sure the bowl stands out from the pot so that you don't get burn) and slowly keep heating up the mixture (don't boil it). 
6. Keep adding the butter, one piece after another, stiring after adding.
7. When all the butter is melted in the mixture, turn off the heat and put the bowl with lemon curd somewhere aside, to let it cool down.
8. Then put your lemon curd in the fridge so that it stiffens more.

Preparation - topping:

1. Before preparing the whipped cream be sure your cream is really, really cool (I always put it in the freezer before beating, for around 10-15 minutes).
2. Take a mixer and its bowl, put cream inside, start mixing. After a while add powdered sugar and something to stiffen it.
3. Beat for around 10 minutes (depending on the power of a mixer it might take more or less time, keep paying attention not to make butter).

Finishing - cupcakes:

1. When everything is cooled down and ready, using a teaspoon, take some of the whipped cream and start distributing it all over the top of your muffin. In the middle top, make a small hole for lemon curd.
2. When all the whipped cream is distributed, put your muffins in the fridge, so that the cream stiffens a little before adding lemon curd.
3. Then, using a syringe or a teaspoon, put some lemon curd into previously prepared holes in whipped cream. 
4. Keep in the fridge.
5. Bon Appetit ;)
   
   
   
   

Italian Almond Cookies

 These cookies were an absolute, astonishing surprise to me. Right after taking them out of the oven, my first thought was 'my God, what a disaster, it's burnt and hard'. And that is what I told my friends. Even so, I didn't throw them away. My mum and my friends tasted it and with a delight claimed that the cookies were really delicious. How come...? 
Well, it appeared that these cookies need some time to get soft and tasty (a couple of hours, every next day they get better ;) ). 
Must try. Quick, easy, delicious.
Recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients (for 50-70 cookies):

• 3 egg whites
• 300g of grounded almonds (= almond flour)
• 300g of powdered sugar (+some, to sprinkle the cookies)
• 1 tablespoon of honey or golden syrup (I used it instead of honey)
• filling: caramel sauce*, lemon curd, whipped cream, creme patissiere, Nutella, honey, etc.

* I used it, matches perfectly

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients using a food processor, till you get thick, malleable dough. It may be sticky. Cover it using a foil and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 
2. During that time, prepare your baking sheet - put some baking paper on it and - optionally - put a foil under the baking paper.*
3. Take the dough out of the fridge. 
4. Start forming small balls (around walnut's size), sprinkle it precisely with powdered sugar, put on a baking sheet and using something small with a round, smooth ending - make a hollow in every cookie (so that after baking, you can put the filling in there).
5. Leave some space between the cookies on the baking sheet - they double their size during baking. 
6. Bake in 160C for around 15 minutes.** 
7. Cool them down and then add the filling.
8. Bon Appetit ! :)

* Foil is important, if your oven likes to burn the bottom of the food. 

** Again, it depends on the oven. It is crucial to keep looking at cookies for these 15 minutes - don't let them get too gold (even though it is a little bit hard, because they remain white because of the powdered sugar). You can easily open the oven during baking (nothing bad will happen) and check(using a toothpick) or even taste one cookie to check if it is ready or not. It is advisable to lift one cookie, using for instance a fork, to check whether the bottom is burnt or not.

If you are afraid that it is baking too fast - decrease the temperature.