makes
8
prep
20 minutes
cook
1 hour
difficulty
Easy
makes
8
serves
preparation
20
minutes
cooking
1
hour
difficulty
Easy
level
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 pinch of table salt
- 110 g caster sugar
- 75 g icing sugar, sifted
- 100 g roasted hazelnuts, mostly skinned and coarsely ground
- freshly ground black pepper
Raspberry ricotta cream
- 200 g raspberries
- 2 tsp icing sugar, sifted
- 150 g ricotta
- 60 ml pure (pouring) cream
- 1 lemon, zest finely grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 100°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Place your eggwhites and salt into the bowl of an electric stand mixer and mix on medium speed until they become white and frothy, about 2 minutes.
- With the motor running, spoon in the caster sugar, in batches, then raise the speed a little, mixing until the sugar has dissolved and the whites are shiny looking, another 2-3 minutes.
- At this stage, turn the speed to low as you add the icing sugar in batches. Continue whisking for another 5 minutes.
- By this stage you will have delightfully thick and glossy whites. Use a spatula and fold in your hazelnuts and black pepper.
- Use a large kitchen spoon to place 8 blobs of your meringue mix onto the lined tray. You want them to be kind of round and sitting up a little, with space between each one. Use the back of your spoon to slightly indent the top of each meringue.
- Bake for 1 hour. At this stage, turn the heat off, open the oven door so it’s slightly ajar and leave the meringues to cool until the oven cools to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, to make the raspberry ricotta cream, place the raspberries and icing sugar into a small saucepan over a medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. The raspberries will be brightly coloured and give off liquid. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, place in a blender with the ricotta, cream and zest and blend until smooth. You will have a lovely pink, slightly thick cream.
- Once you are ready to serve, place each meringue onto a plate and pile over a generous amount of the ricotta cream. Serve.
Cook’s tips
The meringues can be made and kept in an airtight container for a good week.
Photography by Benito Martin. Food styling by O Tama Carey. Prop styling by Lynsey Fryers. Food preparation by Nick Banbury.
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
