North Northamptonshire based food blogger who is obsessed with good food and proper cooking. I'm part of the Midlands Blogging team for the BBC Good Food Shows. This is where I share my own recipes and carry out recipe development and product reviews for brands, including food and wines. Please contact me using the link below.
Showing posts with label cornflour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cornflour. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Rosewater meringues

Having recently been sent a bottle of Nielsen Massey Rosewater to try and loving the simplicity of a good meringue, I was keen to develop my basic meringue recipe to make this light and delicate dessert.

4 Egg whites (8tbs egg white)
225g (8oz) Caster sugar
5ml (1tsp) Cornflour
5ml (1tsp) White vinegar
5ml (1tsp) Nielsen Massey Rosewater
Pink gel paste food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 130C

2. 
Line two baking trays with baking parchment.

3. Making sure your mixing bowl is very clean and grease free (or your egg whites won't whisk up), whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks.

4. 
Gradually add the caster sugar, a spoon at a time, whilst continuing to whisk.  Your mixture will become thick and very glossy.

5. Mix the cornflour, vinegar and Rosewater together then fold into the meringue mix (add any paste colouring at this point too, if desired).

6. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag (I use disposable ones, to save on the washing up!) Snip off the bottom of the bag horizontally to give you a 1cm cut.

7. Pipe even sized circles onto the parchment, approx 3cm in diameter.

8. Place in your preheated oven for 60 minutes, until dry.

9. Remove from the oven. If you gently remove one from the baking parchment and tap the base, you'll know it's cooked because it'll give you a hollow sound.

10. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.



I've sandwiched mine together with some double cream which I've whipped up with some icing sugar and 5ml of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater to make a decadent, deliciously light and summery dessert.

You can see in my photos that I've created a 'striped' effect on my meringues.  This is incredibly simple, but effective to do.  Using a disposable piping bag, pinch the bottom point between your thumb, fore and middle fingers.  Turn the bag inside out, over your hand and arm.  Keeping your hand inside and the point pinched to hold it still, use a clean cocktail stick to smear stripes of your chosen gel colour down the inside of your bag. Gently turn the bag back the correct way and fill with your meringue mixture.  The first couple of piped meringues will be more subtle in colour and the stripes less defined than subsequent ones.



I was sent a bottle of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater free of charge.  I was under no obligation to develop or publish a recipe using the product.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Cherry & Almond Crumble

Looking for a quick and simple pudding?  Then look no further.  As I was on a course with work today, and my hubby was cooking dinner, I wanted something that was quick and tasty for dessert.  I always have the basics in my cupboards but I also had a jar of pitted cherries that I'd bought in Lidl recently, so put a tasty recipe together in about 5 minutes ready for the oven. (Apologies for the photo quality, it was taken on my phone).


Crumble
110g (4oz) Self Raising flour
60g (2oz) Ground almonds
85g (3oz) Demerara sugar
85g (3oz) Butter, chilled

Filling
680g (24oz) jar (350g/12 1/4oz drained weight) pitted cherries in syrup (Lidl)
30g (1oz) Granulated sugar
5ml (1tsp) Almond extract
10ml (2tsp) cornflour
15ml (1tbs) cold water

1.   Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2.   Mix together the flour, almonds and sugar.
3.   Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour/almond/sugar mixture until it resembles bread crumbs.
4.   Drain the cherries, putting the juice into a small saucepan.
5.   Place the drained cherries in the bottom of a 25cm/10" round dish.
6.   Add the granulated sugar to the cherry syrup and bring to the boil.
7.   Continue to boil for 5 minutes until reduced by a third.
8.   Mix the cornflour with the cold water.
9.   Add the almond extract and the cornflour mixture to the boiling syrup.
10. Continue to boil, STIRRING CONSTANTLY, until thickened.
11. Pour thickened cherry syrup onto your cherries in the dish.
12. Sprinkle your crumble mix over the top evenly.
13. Cook for 30-35 minutes until golden.
14. Remove and serve hot with custard / ice cream / cream according to your preference.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did this evening.

Rosie
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