Chocolate tarts with Italian meringue

 So if you thought your weekend was going to be overloaded with chocolate this Easter hows about a seriously intense grown up sophisticated and oh did i mention easy to make pudding

I actually feel rather slack putting these together but they got the wow factor, being super busy i totally cheated and bought ready rolled pasty for the bases which i cooked till golden.

Then filled with a very rich and intense chocolate ganache

using good quality chocolate 70% cocoa really packs the chocolate punch laying hidden under all that Italian meringue.

For the chocolate filling

350g chocolate 70% cocoa
250g double cream
1 tbsp honey

heat up the cream till hot and simply pour over the chocolate and honey stir till the chocolate is incorporated into the cream, use a stick blender but keep the stick blender submerged into the chocolate so not to add air into the mix. Pour into the cool pastry cases.  Leave in the fridge over night till set.

Now for the Italian meringue 

225g of sugar
113g of water  

Heat the syrup until it reaches 120c use a sugar thermometer

while the syrup is heating whisk up 4 egg whites with 1/2 tsp of cream tartar until you get peaks forming.  Use the hot syrup to cook the egg whites by pouring the syrup as a steady stream into the whisking eggs and whisk for a few more minuets before piping on top of the chilled chocolate tarts.  Use a cooks blow torch to finish off the meringue and give colour.

Swiss Meringue

These are great big puffy meringue with a slightly chewy center.   Hubby loves meringue so i am working my way through different types of meringue recipes going right back to basics learning the technical difference between them all, and there are a few different types, meringue can be tricky trying to get chewy centers but still retain a crisp outside, failing to get a peak while whisking.

TOP TIP just a small amount a fat either in the bowl your using or a bit from a broken egg yolk can deflate your whites so they don't peak i either wipe my bowl out with a bit of white vinegar or vodka on a bit of kitchen towel as both of these liquids are great at removing grease.  I also break each egg away from the bowl and add them individually so i know i have no broken yolks.


Ingredients

4 egg whites
225g caster sugar  if you use golden sugar this will give your meringue more of a caramel and chewy texture

Pre heat the oven to 200c and place your sugar in oven proof dish and heat for 5 mins then remove and cool the oven down to 120c leaving the door open help cool,  heating the sugar helps it dissolve quicker into the egg whites (you dont have to do this but it does help)

While the sugar is heating up whisk the egg whites till you have soft peaks

When the sugar is ready add this a spoonful at a time to the egg white until all gone and the mixture is stiff

bake in the oven for 2 hours then turn the oven off keep the door shut and leave over night to cool and dry out.

To flavour

for swirls your meringue should you wish to scoop a few spoons out from the main mix mine were flavoured with strawberry i chopped up a few strawberries added a little water and 1 tsp sugar heated and then passed this through a sieve and added a bit of red colouring to punch the colour up and gently stirred this into the mixture to create swirls

Or you can add flavour directly to the meringue the above recipe i added 2 tsps of orange blossom water to the meringue and 100g of pistachios saving a third back to spinkle on top, be careful adding nuts to meringue as the oils in the nuts deflates the meringue so add at the end and fold in

Check out this pavlova recipe which has a more chewy meringue

 

Fruity Meringue tower

Just because we love our daddy so much and know he cant resist a meringue the girls got busy in the kitchen making a mega meringue tower of fruityness.

 Sophie was chief builder and took the role seriously building each of the 4 layers one of strawberry then blueberry and raspberry the top a mixture of fruit and meringue kisses and each layer stuck together with home made lemon curd and whipped double cream .

Ingredients for the meringue 
we made a pavlova style meringue

4 egg whites
225g golden caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 vanilla pod scrapped

• Pre heat the oven to 180 c
• i use silicon mats for meringue now as i get fed up of baking paper sticking to my meringues  
• Whisk the egg whites until stiff and shiny 
• slowly add the sugar and whisk well in betwee so the sugar properly melts into the egg whites 
• add cornflower, vinegar and vanilla 
• we piped the meringue in circles onto the mould 
• put the meringues into the oven and turn it down straight away to 120 c cook for 1 1/2 hours then turn off and leave over night to dry out and cool down 

assemble just before eating as if you do this in advance the meringues will suck up any moisture from the fruit and cream and give a soggy meringue








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