A take on the British classic of Queen of Puddings (sponge, strawberry compote and a meringue crown) – this dessert is composed of a tart but sweet compote of peach and rhubarb, with a hint of orange and vanilla, on top of a bottom layer of crumbled ginger nut biscuits, topped with creamy, caramelised browned Italian meringue.
It came about from me having left over rhubarb in the kitchen and a hungry American vistor with a sweet tooth to feed in the sitting room. I wanted to pair it with something sweet to balance out the acidity of the rhubarb, which is how the Italian meringue came into the picture. The peach made its entrance out of the desire to compliment the rhubarb with something else sweet and warming and to enrichen the juice of the compote. The ginger nut crumble added texture and a bit of heat.
It looks a picture, like a cloud, and the browning, done either with a blow torch or in a hot oven, follows the swirls of the meringue prettily. I’m extremely enthusiastic about Italian meringue at the moment – it combines the unctious, almost caramel flavour of a marshmallow with the creamy, smooth texture of….I don’t even know, gooey SILK….and is glossier to look at than an Easten European hair advertisement. Just great.
There are 2 main types of meringue – French meringue and Italian meringue. French is probably the most common and is made by whisking egg whites and adding caster sugar and then baking – it is crisp, but may have a chewy inside. Italian meringue is made by whisking up egg whites and then slowly adding a liquid, hot sugar syrup while whisking. The meringue is ready to eat immediately and is much softer and gooey in texture. It is this technique that I used for this recipe.
It came about from me having left over rhubarb in the kitchen and a hungry American vistor with a sweet tooth to feed in the sitting room. I wanted to pair it with something sweet to balance out the acidity of the rhubarb, which is how the Italian meringue came into the picture. The peach made its entrance out of the desire to compliment the rhubarb with something else sweet and warming and to enrichen the juice of the compote. The ginger nut crumble added texture and a bit of heat.
It looks a picture, like a cloud, and the browning, done either with a blow torch or in a hot oven, follows the swirls of the meringue prettily. I’m extremely enthusiastic about Italian meringue at the moment – it combines the unctious, almost caramel flavour of a marshmallow with the creamy, smooth texture of….I don’t even know, gooey SILK….and is glossier to look at than an Easten European hair advertisement. Just great.
There are 2 main types of meringue – French meringue and Italian meringue. French is probably the most common and is made by whisking egg whites and adding caster sugar and then baking – it is crisp, but may have a chewy inside. Italian meringue is made by whisking up egg whites and then slowly adding a liquid, hot sugar syrup while whisking. The meringue is ready to eat immediately and is much softer and gooey in texture. It is this technique that I used for this recipe.
Freshly whisked and whipped up Italian meringue
Recipe
Ingredients (serves 4):
400g rhubarb, shopped into 2 cm chunks
5 medium peaches, peeled, stone removed and cut into small chunks
1 orange, zest and juice of half
1 vanilla pod, sliced in half and seeds scraped out (and kept)
50g caster sugar
8 ginger nut biscuits
For the meringue:
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
2 egg whites
Method:
1. To make the compote; place the peaches into a saucepan with the zest and juice of the orange, the vanilla pod seeds and the pod itself. Put over medium heat and simmer for 4ish minutes until the peaches are slightly softening.
2. Add the rhubarb to the pan and continue to cook for another 6 minutes or so, until both the rhubarb and the peaches are soft.
3. Crush up the ginger nut biscuits and layer in the bottom of 4 ramekins.
4. To make the meringue, first make a sugar syrup by placing the sugar and water into another pan. Heat on low and stir with a metal spoon until the sugar has dissolved. Leave on medium heat to simmer, without touching it, until the sugar reaches the ‘soft ball’ stage, approximately 5 minutes.
NB – Soft ball stage = around 235 Farenheit/112 Celsius – measure with a sugar thermometer. Soft Ball stage means the stage where if a teaspoon is taken out and dropped into a bowl of very cold water, it will form a ball which when picked up, collapses in your fingers into a puddle. The next stage along from that is ‘hard ball stage’, suprisingly, where if you pick it out of the cold water it is a hard ball that doesn’t collapse, again suprisingly. If you don’t have a sugar thermometer just use this test.
5. Whisk the 2 egg whites until you have stiff peaks. Then, while still whisking (use a hand blender) very very slowly trickle in all the hot sugar syrup. The egg whites should become glossy and smooth and altogether beautiful.
6. Remove the vanilla pod and place the hot compote on top of the ginger nut crumbles in the four meringues and top that with the Italian meringue. Try and dollop it on prettily as the browning will follow the swirls of the meringue. Either swirl it on in an attractive fashion or pipe it on in spikes.
7. Take a blow torch and brown the outside of the meringue. If you don’t have a blow torch, heat the oven to 200 Celsius (in advance) and place into the oven for 5 minutes until evenly browned. The browned bits will take on a lovely caramelised flavour and will have a slightly chewier consistency than the inner meringue – don’t burn it though as burnt sugar is vile.
8. Serve immediately.
Ingredients (serves 4):
400g rhubarb, shopped into 2 cm chunks
5 medium peaches, peeled, stone removed and cut into small chunks
1 orange, zest and juice of half
1 vanilla pod, sliced in half and seeds scraped out (and kept)
50g caster sugar
8 ginger nut biscuits
For the meringue:
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
2 egg whites
Method:
1. To make the compote; place the peaches into a saucepan with the zest and juice of the orange, the vanilla pod seeds and the pod itself. Put over medium heat and simmer for 4ish minutes until the peaches are slightly softening.
2. Add the rhubarb to the pan and continue to cook for another 6 minutes or so, until both the rhubarb and the peaches are soft.
3. Crush up the ginger nut biscuits and layer in the bottom of 4 ramekins.
4. To make the meringue, first make a sugar syrup by placing the sugar and water into another pan. Heat on low and stir with a metal spoon until the sugar has dissolved. Leave on medium heat to simmer, without touching it, until the sugar reaches the ‘soft ball’ stage, approximately 5 minutes.
NB – Soft ball stage = around 235 Farenheit/112 Celsius – measure with a sugar thermometer. Soft Ball stage means the stage where if a teaspoon is taken out and dropped into a bowl of very cold water, it will form a ball which when picked up, collapses in your fingers into a puddle. The next stage along from that is ‘hard ball stage’, suprisingly, where if you pick it out of the cold water it is a hard ball that doesn’t collapse, again suprisingly. If you don’t have a sugar thermometer just use this test.
5. Whisk the 2 egg whites until you have stiff peaks. Then, while still whisking (use a hand blender) very very slowly trickle in all the hot sugar syrup. The egg whites should become glossy and smooth and altogether beautiful.
6. Remove the vanilla pod and place the hot compote on top of the ginger nut crumbles in the four meringues and top that with the Italian meringue. Try and dollop it on prettily as the browning will follow the swirls of the meringue. Either swirl it on in an attractive fashion or pipe it on in spikes.
7. Take a blow torch and brown the outside of the meringue. If you don’t have a blow torch, heat the oven to 200 Celsius (in advance) and place into the oven for 5 minutes until evenly browned. The browned bits will take on a lovely caramelised flavour and will have a slightly chewier consistency than the inner meringue – don’t burn it though as burnt sugar is vile.
8. Serve immediately.
rhubarb and orange
simmering compote
hello crumbly, compotey ramekins
swirled meringue
ta daaaaa
