Coffee and Caramelised White Chocolate Meringues

A Small Batch Bake

Hello Everyone. Happy Friday.

If this is your first time checking out my newsletter, hello. welcome. I hope you like baking because that’s what we do over here; anything and everything baked you’ll find covered in these weekly emails. You can subscribe for free for one newsletter a week that is most often recipe based, and if you want to support my work and to get access to exclusive bonus recipes and other bonus content (this week there is a competition to win some bakeware), then you can subscribe for just £5 a month.

I am digging back in the archives today, posting a recipe from my most recent book Small Batch Bakes because the Kindle version of the book is currently on sale in the UK, for the ridiculous price of 99p. (You can also buy the book anywhere books are sold, and I would be thrilled if, you are thinking of getting a hardback copy, you would support your local independent bookstore).

For those of you who haven’t heard of the book, let me give you a very quick intro. The book is all about the joys of baking outside of special occasions like birthdays and Christmas, when a huge batch of 25 cookies is too much, and a layer cake that serves 15 isn’t needed. For me, baking is something I enjoy doing week in and week out and there is only so much baking I can get my boyfriend to take to his office or that I can hand out in meetings. For those times, I turn to small-batch baking. Think date night desserts that serve just two people, a single cookie for when the craving hits, or small cakes for when you have a few friends over. The other benefit of baking this way is that is a great way to use up the odds and ends in the back of the cupboard. That last knob of butter turned into a cookie, the scrapings of the jam jar used to flavour a cake. The book covers everything from cookies, cakes, desserts, pastry and bread-based recipes. It is also my only book that includes any savoury baking.

To give you an idea of what the book is all about, I have chosen the fabulous coffee and caramelised white chocolate meringues to share with you all today. The recipe is inspired by something my friends at Ty Melin Bakery in Cardiff make, and it is fabulous, beautiful meringues swirled with coffee and loaded with chunks of caramelised white chocolate. The recipe is also a brilliant way to use up leftover egg whites.

To continue the theme of caramelisation, for paid subscribers, I have a fabulous brand new recipe;  Banana Blondies with a Whipped Salted Caramel Topping. These are incredibly easy to make and are a great way to use up those bananas sitting on your counter that isn’t just another banana bread.

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Small Batch Coffee and Caramelised White Chocolate Meringues
Makes 4

2 large egg whites

Pinch of fine sea salt

Pinch of cream of tartar (can be replaced with a couple drops of lemon juice)

160g caster sugar

1 tsp instant espresso powder, plus extra for sprinkling

70g caramelised white chocolate, roughly chopped.

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Preheat the oven to 110ºC (90ºC Fan). Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Place the egg white in a bowl and whisk in the salt and cream of tartar until the mixture looks a little like shaving foam. Slowly rain in the sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking constantly until the meringue holds stiff peaks. Sprinkle in the coffee and chocolate and fold together briefly, just a couple times, to swirl them into the meringue mixture.

Spoon 4 equal mounds of the mixture onto the prepared tray, spacing them well apart, and sprinkle with a little extra coffee powder. Bake For 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until dry and crisp, and then can be lifted easily from the parchment. If you bake on the shorter end of the timescale, the finished meringues will have a softer centre than if you bake them for longer. Turn the oven off but leave the meringues inside for an to cool down slowly.

If stored in a sealed container in a cool, dry place, the meringues will keep for at least a week.