I felt sorry for Josh on masterchef for not getting his meringue right and therefore losing the challenge… I’m guessing under pressure it would be easy to not call it quits too early on the egg whites.
In order to use up some fruit, cream and egg whites that I had spare, I made up some mini pavlovas. I wasn’t in a pretty decorating mood but luckily they just require you plopping them together. Already a few have dissapeared from the plate… I think we have food stealing fairies.
I also made flat bread wraps to go with the chilli concarne dinner tonight. Making flat bread is now going to be a common task in this household. It is going to save us a fair bit of money as bought wraps are expensive for what they are. Maybe the money can go to other baking escapades.
We also have food stealing fairies in our house. Please advise if you find out how to deal with them. My plan of attack thus far has been to make extra of everything to account for the expected fairy stealing.
Pavs look great, btw!
It wasn’t -just- meringue. The meringue you’re most familiar with is French meringue – what we typically use for pavlovas. Cooked from raw. Swiss meringue is beaten eggwhite and caster sugar cooked over a bain-marie of simmering water. Italian meringue is beaten egg white with hot sugar syrup poured in a thin stream while still beating. It’s often used as frosting on cakes. As with most confectionery, the sugar syrup has to be at a precise temperature and you have to ensure you pour it into the egg white in a thin enough stream to thicken it. I think they all did a very good job of doing italian meringue – it’s a tricky thing.
It was just meringue 😛
Ok honestly I was walking back and forth from the kitchen making dinner, so I didn’t notice they were making italian meringue.
I’ve done a Italian meringue a few times before as it is Andrew’s favourite icing.
First time here – http://www.koali.com.au/life/?p=874
Also done Italian buttercream too – which is my favourite icing.
Now i’m getting hungry
Bah. I officially do not like Matt Moran anymore. Why? Because he described it as an “Italian Meringue”. The recipe from their site for the meringue is the Swiss one I described above. For some reason, he asked Josh whether he heated the sugar, but why should he heat it if it’s not part of the recipe that they provide on the website? Why would they be beating it over a double boiler? I’ve heard reports that the recipes Matt puts in the papers are wrong in terms of the ingredient quantities. Here’s just another example that shows his name should be Matt Moron.
I went and rewatched the episode on the website (had forgotten they had the clips up there). You are right! The recipe is swiss mirangue (which makes sense as it is thicker and firmer from research).
And I agree… when Josh asked for help he was asked if he had heated the sugar yet. Makes no sense!