These meringues are classic French meringues with a generous dollop of limoncello and fresh basil cream all topped off with a blueberry syrup. This recipe would be perfect for an afternoon tea or party as all the components could be made the day before, then you can just put it all together on the day.
For the meringues,
- 3 egg whites
- 180g caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 100°C. Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper. I wanted my meringues to be all the same size, so I drew circles with a diameter of about 6cm on the back of the paper to use as a guideline.
Whisk the egg whites in the cleanest bowl you can find (just the smallest amount of grease in a bowl can stop egg whites from whipping up correctly). Once the egg whites are foamy, start adding the sugar.
Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time, and allow each portion of sugar to be whisked in to the egg white fully before adding the next spoonful. When all the sugar has been incorporated, the egg whites should form stiff peaks. The best test is to turn the bowl upside down. If anything falls out of the bowl – it’s not ready!
Dot a small amount of meringue in the four corners of your trays to hold down the baking paper. Fill a piping bag with the meringue and pipe a spiral of meringue in each circle, then pipe an extra ring on top. Use a palette knife to rough up the edges so they looked like mini pavlovas. Make sure there is a dip in the middle of each meringue for the cream.
Bake in the oven for an hour. After an hour, turn the oven off but leave the meringues inside to cool down with the oven (taking the meringues out of the oven straight away can lead to large cracks in the meringues).
For the blueberry syrup,
- 100g blueberries
- 25g granulated sugar
- 25g water
Pop the blueberries in a small saucepan with the sugar and the water. Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally. The blueberries will start to shrink down and the liquid will become a thicker purple syrup. Take the blueberries off the heat and leave to cool.
For the limoncello and basil cream,
- 300ml double cream
- 50g icing sugar
- 4 tbsp limoncello
- 7-8 large basil leaves, finely chopped
Whisk up the double cream until it is thick. Sift the icing sugar in to the cream and fold in. Take a small amount of the cream in to a bowl and add the limoncello and mix together. Pour this back in to the bigger bowl of cream and fold together. (This is an easier way of incorporating a liquid in to whipped up cream). Finally add the basil and fold in.
These can all be made the day before you want to serve the meringues, but keep them separate until you want to serve.
To put it all together, dollop a generous spoonful of cream in to the centre of each meringue. Then use a teaspoon to drop 2 or 3 blueberries on top of the cream and drizzle the syrup down the sides of each meringue. Finally add a tiny basil leaf on top of each meringue and serve.
