Who doesn’t like Meringues? They always go down well in my books and are a really great dessert to make in advance because you can bake them ahead of time and they store extremely well. In our case for foodstock we baked off a mammoth amount of them, 700 to be exact on the Monday before the event on Wednesday and when it came to serving all we had to do was give them a scoop of Jameson whiskey cream, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and a sprinkle of chopped toasted hazelnuts!
I have to say that by the end of the night, there was a fantastic sense of team work when everyone who had been helping us all night, came down to the kitchen- the chefs, the girls from Bord Bia, the staff at the Chalet and the guys from Le Fooding, to work together to get the meringues out and ready! Every free space in the kitchen was taken up and there was meringues as far as the eye could see and in no time we were ready to serve up the last course. Let me just say that these chewy mocha meringues dripping with chocolate sauce didn’t last long in front of the eager crowd and within no time at all we had served them all up!
Mocha Meringues with Jameson Whiskey Cream, Chocolate Sauce and toasted Hazelnuts
This batter makes a really chewy, marshmallow meringue, which goes perfectly with the whiskey cream. If you aren't a coffee fan, drop the espresso powder from the recipe and replace it with more cocoa powder.
Makes 12 meringues
250g icing sugar
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons of cornflour
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
10g of good quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder
60g of chopped toasted hazelnuts
Preheat the oven to 150oC/Gas Mark 2
Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
Place the icing sugar and egg whites in a standing food mixer and whisk on high for 10 minutes until glossy white peaks form.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the cornflour and the white wine vinegar. When this is mixed through, sift the cocoa powder and espresso powder over the meringue mix and gently fold in.
Using a tablespoon, place 3inch/8cm spoonfuls of the meringue mix onto the baking tray and flatten each one gently in the centre with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 45 minutes.
For the dark chocolate sauce:
30g caster sugar
60ml of water
50g of good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of espresso powder
Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over a medium heat and stir gently to dissolve the sugar.
Add the espresso powder, whisk through and bring the mix to a steady simmer for 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat, allow to sit for 1-2 minutes, then add the chocolate and whisk through until combined.
Sift in the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
For the Jameson Whiskey Cream
375ml of cream
3 tablespoons of Jameson whiskey
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
Whisk the cream into soft peaks.
Dissolve the icing sugar with the whiskey in a bowl and then add to the cream, folding to combine.
To assemble the meringues, place one on each plate, add a spoonful of Jameson whiskey cream on top, drizzle with the chocolate sauce and sprinkle with the toasted nuts.
