I'm not sure if it's my new oven or if I've finally mastered meringue, but either way this ended up being one of the prettiest challenges to date, and one that's really surprised me. Mary's delicate layers of French and Swiss meringue filled with a strawberry/raspberry/cream centre were basically heaven on a cake stand. *insert heart-eyed emoji here*
As ever the original recipe can be found on the BBC Food website here, but it's also below with my notes and photographs.
Ingredients:
For the French meringue shell:
8 large free-range egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
475g/1lb 1oz caster sugar
25g/1oz dusky lavender ready-to-roll icing
25g/1oz deep purple ready-to-roll icing
10g/¼oz yellow ready-to-roll icing
I couldn't find ready-to-roll icing in those specific colours so had to settle for the next best thing. I figured that two different shades of pink were much better than a wacky red/blue/green combination! If you have the time then you could make your own dusky lavender/deep purple with plain white fondant icing and a gel colouring, but sadly I just didn't have the time so had to make do with what I could find. My local Tesco had the best selection of colours to choose from, but Asda are normally quite good too. I could sense Mary Berry's disapproving gaze even though she was nowhere to be seen...
For the Swiss meringue decoration:
4 large free-range egg whites
250g/9oz caster sugar
For the filling:
600ml/20fl oz double cream
50g/1¾oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp orange blossom water
400g/14oz strawberries, roughly chopped
200g/7oz raspberries
Method:
Line 3 large baking trays with baking parchment. Draw 2 x 20cm/8in circles on 2 of the trays and 1 x 20cm/8in circle on 1 of the trays. (You should end up with 5 x 20cm/8in circles). My trays weren't big enough for this so I had to go for 18cm circles instead - it didn't make much of a difference to the overall bake, but I was left with several trays of meringue kisses at the end as a result of so much excess mixture!
Preheat the oven to 120C/100C Fan/Gas ½.
For the meringue shell, tip the egg whites and cream of tartar into a large spotlessly clean bowl and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed until the whites form stiff peaks.
Add the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously to make a thick, glossy meringue.
Spoon two-thirds of the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm/⅝in plain nozzle. Pipe a thick ring inside one of the circles on the baking tray and continue spiraling until the entire circle is filled. Repeat with a second circle. These create the base and the top of the meringue cake. Repeat the process with the 3 remaining circles, except don't fill in the circles, so that you have three hoops of meringue - these create the sides of the meringue shell. Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, make the fondant violets. The official instructions are a little complicated: "for each fondant violet, roll 2 little pieces of dusky lavender fondant and 3 small pieces of deep purple lavender into small balls (about the size of an orange pip). Dust 2 pieces of greaseproof paper with icing sugar and place the balls of fondant between the sheets of greaseproof and flatten each ball out with your fingers, to a thin circle, approximately 1cm/½in in diameter - these form the petals. Roll a tiny piece of yellow fondant into 3 tiny balls, to form the stamens. Using a small paintbrush and a tiny amount of water, stick the petals and stamens together to form a violet, with the 2 dusky lavender petals at the top, 2 dark purple petals below them and the remaining dark purple petal on the bottom, in the middle. Press the yellow stamens into the centre."
Any decoration that requires the use of a paintbrush isn't something I'm interested in... Instead of faffing with all of the above I measured out the correct amounts of icing, shaped them into balls and then eased them out gently into flat rounds. I attached the yellow centre (stamens?) with a tiny dab of water using my finger. They may not look as intricate and perfect as the recipe intends, but as far as I'm concerned they still look like flowers!
Repeat to make 13 violets. Leave to dry on greaseproof paper for at least 1 hour.
When the meringues are dry, gently slide 1 of the cooked, filled meringues onto a 30cm/12in heatproof (to 120C) serving plate. I don't have one of these I just lined a baking sheet with baking parchment again. Spoon the remaining French meringue into another piping bag and pipe 8 blobs of meringue, evenly spaced around the edge of the circle. Carefully place 1 of the meringue hoops on top and press down very gently to stick the hoop to the base - the meringue is super delicate so be cautious! However, if it all falls apart at this stage don't panic: you can stick it all together now and no-one has to know if it all went a bit wrong!
Repeat the process with the remaining 2 hoops of meringue.
Roughly pipe the remaining one-third of meringue around the sides to disguise the hoops. Using a palette knife smooth out the meringue so that the sides are smooth and straight and look like a cake. My meringue was extremely sloppy at this stage (no idea why) so it kept sliding down the sides. I put it in the oven before it could totally fall apart, and as a result was left with a huge bowl of unused meringue. To save throwing it away I piped blobs of it onto a couple of trays and baked them for around 40 minutes. They keep in an airtight container for ages, so it's worth doing if you have any surplus meringue after making the shell.
Bake on the serving plate / baking sheet for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
For the Swiss meringue decoration, set a large mixing bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Tip the egg whites and sugar into the bowl and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the meringue reaches 70C on a sugar thermometer. I cannot recommend my Thermapen enough: I bought it a couple of years ago for macarons and it comes in for everything! They're a bit pricey but are an excellent investment.
Remove from the heat and continue whisking until cool and stiff. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe a pretty border around the base, the middle and the top edge of the meringue shell. Pipe a border around the outside edge and the middle of the filled meringue circle that will become the lid. Bake for 30 minutes.
It's worth noting at this stage that you'll need to leave about a tablespoon of meringue to one side for later: you'll need it to attach the flowers. I didn't realise this and had to try and salvage it from the bottom of a piping bag...
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
For the filling, whip the cream and icing sugar together in a bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Whisk in the orange blossom water and gently fold in the strawberries and raspberries.
Spoon into the cooled meringue cake shell.
Top with the meringue lid. To decorate, use tiny blobs of meringue to stick 6 violets around the middle piped border on the sides of the cake, 6 violets around the top of the cake and 1 violet in the centre of the top of the cake. Serve immediately.
I have to say, this Spanische Windtorte was a bit of a faff but when looking at the finished product I think it's totally worth it. It's not as neat or pretty as I would have liked - my piping skills need serious work! - but it's the first time I've made meringue that's not burnt and as dry as the Sahara desert. As far as I'm concerned that makes this a roaring success!
It went down well at home too: it disappeared in double quick time! The Swiss outside was soft and chewy; the French shell wasn't as crisp as it should have been but still melted in your mouth, and the sharp, tart fruit in the centre cut through the sweetness of the meringue perfectly. I was very dubious as to the point of the orange blossom, but somehow it stops the cream being too sickly and complements every single ingredient expertly. That's the last time I question Mary Berry!
It's essentially a carefully constructed Eton Mess, so while it may be a Spanish/Austrian bizarre hybrid, to me it seemed quintessentially British so I'll definitely be making this again during Wimbledon next year!
What are your thoughts on Mary's Spanische Windtorte? Will you be trying it out or does the onslaught of meringue have you running in the opposite direction? Do let me know in the comments below!
[N.B. this post contains affiliate links to Lakeland products.]
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