Meringues

Following on from yesterday’s custard tart recipe today I bring you a use for those two egg whites you should have saved. After all, how can something be called frugal if you end up disposing of half of two good eggs? I know these meringues probably won’t count as a complete dessert, but they are so adaptable, you’d be mad not to make them. You could simply crumble them up into a few scoops of ice cream, or cut them in half add some whipped cream and fruit, the possibilities aren’t quite endless, but there are a fair few.

The recipe will make four large meringues, but you can scale up to suit, and take around 40 minutes to make.

Ingredients:

• two egg whites
• 4 ounces of caster sugar, this is around 115g, granulated sugar will do

Method:

Beat the eggs with a hand mixer until they are able to form stiff peaks. People tend to test if this step is complete by holding the dish upside down above their head. However, by doing this there is the potential for looking like a fool as well as the problem of it not being a particularly accurate method.

To the whisked egg add the sugar a little at a time, mixing it in on a high speed every time you add some. Make sure not to over-whisk it. The mixture should have an almost glossy look to it.

Prepare some baking parchment and preheat the oven to 180C. Spoon the meringue mixture into four separate splodges and bake for around 25 minutes. After the alloted time turn the oven off and leave the meringues to remain until the oven has cooled.

Cost:

Well, if you’re using the egg whites from the previous recipe their price was included in that recipe, that makes the cost of these meringues around20p. I think that’s around 5 times less than what you’d pay in the supermarket, if not more.