Skip to main content

Separate two eggs and add chocolate...

I can't separate you!
I don't usually make meringues.  Once, a long time ago, I made meringues, and I think I tried to wedge far too many of them into the oven at once.  They came out extremely chewy.  Usually I tell this story to people and they say, "oh, but chewy meringues can be quite nice..."  No.  This was the kind of chewy where you bit into it and it immediately glued itself to all your teeth at once, and the roof of your mouth, and your tongue, and you spent the next half hour trying to pick bits out with your fingernails.

So, I don't usually make meringues.  But recently I had a hankering for American-style pudding.  This, for the non-Americans in the audience, is a kind of thick flavoured custard, and is the only thing an American will think of if you say the word pudding - it doesn't refer to any other kind of dessert, and particularly not the British style of baked or steamed pudding.  This is useful to remember if you are ever trying to describe, say, Christmas pudding to someone across the Atlantic.  It's a bit like Americans describing biscuits to a British person.  The mental imagery is all wrong.

Anyway, the pudding that takes me back to my childhood is butterscotch pudding with raisins in, set in individual bowls with the skin on top.  (I seem to remember you could eat half of it and then, carefully, sliiide the remaining half out, leaving a perfectly clean bowl.)  There are, however, numerous other versions, and I thought I'd try chocolate this time.  This recipe is adapted from one in the Hershey's 100th Anniversary Cookbook.


Chocolate Pudding

1.5 oz / 50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 3/4 cup / 400 ml milk
2 egg yolks
5 oz / 135g sugar
2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp / 12g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Measure out 1 cup / 250ml milk and pour it into a small saucepan.  Add the dark chocolate pieces.

Measure out the remaining 3/4 cup / 150ml milk and leave it in the jug.  Add the two egg yolks and whisk together.  In a bowl, stir together the sugar, cornflour and salt.  Add the eggy milk and mix together.

Now it's just stirring.  Gently heat the milk and chocolate, stirring constantly, until the chocolate melts.  Add the sugar mixture gradually, whisking as you go, then keep stirring until it boils.  You will think it's not thickening, then it suddenly will, all at once.  Turn the heat down and cook for a minute longer (don't stop stirring!), then remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.  Pour into a bowl.  If you don't want a skin, press some clingfilm (plastic wrap) directly onto the surface.  Leave to cool.  If you're not eating it fairly soon, put it in the fridge.

You will notice that the recipe involves two egg yolks.  Which left me with two egg whites, which brings us neatly back to the meringues.

Meringues, say all the recipes, are very simple.  You take some egg whites, and a certain proportion of sugar for each egg white, and you whisk it all up...

...in a clean, grease-free bowl.  I have a sneaking suspicion I should have double-checked the grease-free-ness of my bowl.  Or maybe it was that my egg whites came straight out of the fridge.  Whatever it was, my meringues didn't stiffen up as much as I thought they should, despite a considerable amount of whisking.  Fortunately, this recipe involved adding cocoa powder, so in the end I shrugged, chucked the cocoa in, and came out with something that was just thick enough to pipe.



Cinnamon chocolate meringues

2 egg whites
4 oz / 125g caster sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Whisk the egg whites until just standing in peaks.  Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time, whisking between each addition (yes, this is as tedious as it sounds).  Keep whisking until the mixture is stiff (or in my case, just about not runny).  Sift the cocoa powder and cinnamon over, and fold in gently.

Preheat the oven to 130C.  Line a couple of baking sheets with non-stick paper, and put the meringue mixture in a piping bags fitted with a star nozzle.  Pipe little stars (or lines, squiggles or whatever) onto the paper, and put into the oven.  Cook for an hour, switching over the trays halfway through, and then turn the oven off and leave them in the oven to cool.

If you're feeling really decadent you can dip the bases in melted chocolate.  Or sandwich them together with whipped cream.

They taste good, anyway - delicate airy puffs of chocolatey goodness.  Maybe I should make meringues more often.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk: Ashbourne - Longford

The Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk follows the "general direction of Prince Charles Edward Stuart's march from Ashbourne to Derby". ( Derby Ramblers ) I'm inclined to think that the prince would have had the sense to follow the main road rather than tramp across muddy fields, but a route following the modern A52 would not be particularly pleasant.  The appeal of the walk for me was not really the historical accuracy, though. More that it was close to home, fairly short, and unlikely to be flooded even in the current climate. It has turned into my Lent walk: starting on 5th February; visiting plenty of village churches along the way; and hopefully finishing by Easter. Walk 1 I set off on a grey day from Ashbourne Market Cross, the official start of the Bonnie Prince Charlie walk. My first stop was Ashbourne Methodist Church, a severely symmetrical building smelling faintly of cinnamon, where I prayed for a few people who were on my mind. The route climbed steeply out of As

Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk: Longford to Lees and BONUS walk

The walk from Longford to Lees didn't include any churches. That was frankly not on. So I found an extra walk which included not one, not two, but three churches. Also it was shorter, because I didn't have time to fit in a longer walk that week. The next week I managed the churchless section of the Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk. It was a little more adventurous than I expected! Walk 1 (Three Churches) For this route I followed the directions given by Dave Welford on his very useful blog . As soon as I parked up by Sutton-on-the-Hill church, I heard the bleating of lambs. Spring must be coming. number 11 mum and baby   I crossed a field full of numbered lambs and ewes and came out in the middle of Sutton village. Turning left by the village preschool, I picked up another footpath to take me across the fields to Dalbury. A ruined cottage stood crumbling lonesomely - the Gamekeeper's Cottage, apparently.  I was amused by Dave Welford's comments about the miserable farmer who

Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk: Lees to Derby

These final two Bonnie Prince Charlie walks were quite a contrast: the first across empty fields and along quiet roads; the second crossing from country into city as I walked into Derby. I started both walks at the Great Northern Greenway car park, just off Station Road in Mickleover.  Walk 1 In order to keep walking the Bonnie Prince Charlie way in the right direction, I first found my way back to Lees by an alternative route. The first section, along the cycle path, was well paved. After that it quickly got very muddy. At least it's a popular walk from Mickleover to Radbourne, so it was easy to find the path.  St Andrew's, Radbourne, is rather dominated by memorials. It looks as if the preacher would be hemmed in by tombs!      I liked this bench outside, with the text, "The thoughtful soul to solitude retires". Writing this, I only just realised it was a quote. Turns out it's from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam . The rest of the walk certainly provided solitude,