Edible gift bags to present your mini eggs in - I give you meringue nests.
As with my previous meringue attempts [kisses, white chocolate raspberry creams, mini kisses], the recipe is a simple 100g caster/golden sugar and 2 egg whites. This made 4 large nests [holding 10 mini eggs] and one small [holding 3/4 mini eggs]. Whip your ingredients to soft, firm peaks either by hand or with an electric whisk:
...and transfer the lot into a piping bag. The nozzle shape doesn't need to be worried about too much, as long as it's fairly wide [I've used a Wilton Star]:
The nests are simple to make - I've broken it down in to 3 stages for the blog, but the remainder of my nests were made by combining the three stages in one continuous motion. Start by creating a circular base on a lined baking tray:
...next, pipe a line of meringue on top of the outer edge of the base:
...and continue again on top of that line to form your nest:
The meringue will hold in place and wont collapse [if it does, the mixture was not whipped enough - do the over the head trick to make sure!]. Continue making your nests - I varied the shapes slightly, sometimes making my lines on top of the base straight, moving outwards to create open nests and also moving inwards to create slightly more closed nests:
In an oven at the lowest setting possible [mine was around 70 degreed C] pop your
meringues in to dry for around 2-3 hours:
...and once cool, fill with your treats:
You could, of course, just nip in to Sainsburys and buy some, but where's the fun in that?
If you are feeling fancy, you could add some decoration to the meringues, such as chocolate sprinkles on the top to create a next effect, or hundreds of thousands to make the whole thing a little more pretty.
See you tomorrow x
No comments
Post a Comment