Happy Easter to the ones who celebrate! I’ve prepared little meringue nests with pistachios and raspberries aka the most delicious combination! Don’t be afraid of making meringue and try it out at home!
Hello and welcome everyone!
I hope you’re having a great weekend so far! This week I’ve prepared little meringue nests filled with raspberries and pistachio cream. I know that making meringue can be quite imitating, but if you follow these steps carefully, they should come out just fine!
Before baking make sure to:
That the egg whites are room temperature. It will be easier for the sugar to dissolve.
That the bowl you’re going to whisk the egg whites in is clean and dry.
That the heavy cream and mascarpone are chilled before.
Bake them at low temperature to make sure they dry out gracefully.
Recipe
Makes 8 meringue nests
Meringue
200 g egg whites, room temperature
350 g sugar
1 teaspoon lemon lemon juice
1 teaspoon potato starch
Raspberry “Gel”
250 g frozen or fresh raspberries
3-4 g agar agar or a mix from 1 teaspoon of potato starch and water
40 g sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Optional: 1 tablespoon rosewater
Pistachio Mascarpone Cream
250 g heavy whipping cream
220 g mascarpone
100 g pistachio paste
Optional: 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
Optionally for Decoration:
Pistachios
Raspberries
Mini chocolate eggs
White chocolate shavings
Method Meringue
Preheat oven to 80-90°C no fan.
Place the egg whites in a metal bowl or glass bowl. Make sure it is very clean and dry and the egg whites should be well separated from the yolk.
Start beating the egg whites from low speed to medium high. When the egg whites start to slightly foam, add the lemon juice.
When soft-peaks starts to appear, start gradually adding sugar. One teaspoon at the time - wait every 30 seconds before adding sugar.
Once all the sugar has been added, mix on almost high and beat the egg whites until the sugar has dissolved. Check if it has dissolved, by rubbing a little meringue in between your fingers. If not, beat a little longer. If yes, add the tablespoon of potato starch and mix gently.
Line parchment paper on a large baking sheet. Pencil 4 circles onto the parchment, leaving space in between from each other.
Transfer the meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a large star shaped nozzle. First pipe the round base and then pipe the sides, around 2 to 3 rounds upwards.
Place in oven and bake for around 3-4 hours, until they are crisp and it is easy for you to lift them off the parchment paper. Leave to cool completely in the oven.
Also: Nothing bad will happen if the sugar doesn’t dissolve fully. You will only discover little brown bubbles in some spots.
Raspberry Sauce
If you don’t like the seeds from raspberries, I recommend blending the raspberries first and pouring it over a sieve.
In a saucepan, add frozen or fresh raspberries with the sugar, lemon juice and optionally rosewater. Place the saucepan on a stove over medium heat and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the raspberries start to cook.
While the raspberries are still on the stove, add in the agar agar or the potato starch slushie. Mix it well in and keep the saucepan on the stove for two more minutes.
Set the saucepan aside and pour the raspberry sauce into a bowl. Allow it to cool down.
Once cooled down, mix the raspberries well with a spoon to “loosen up” and transfer to a piping bag.
Method Pistachio Mascarpone Whipped Cream
Make sure the heavy cream and mascarpone are chilled. If your pistachio paste is already quite sweet, I wouldn’t personally add the powdered sugar - but this is pure preference!
In a bowl combine: heavy cream, mascarpone, pistachio paste and optionally pistachio paste.
Whisk on medium speed until soft peaks. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star shaped nozzle.
Assembly:
Take your meringue nest and check if the inside is hollow or too much meringue. If there’s too much meringue that there won’t fit enough cream, carve carefully with a knife a hole out.
Fill with the raspberry sauce first, then with the pistachio mascarpone cream. Make sure it is fully filled. Add some raspberry sauce in the middle.
Decorate with mini easter eggs, fresh raspberries, pistachios or white chocolate shavings. You can go as decorative as you want!
Enjoy!
Thank you and see you next week!