Next up for Halloween – Meringues. Crisp on the outside, marshmallowy on the inside, light, sweet and impressive when served at a party. They’re traditionally served with whipped cream and fresh fruit, but these cute little Meringue Ghosts are dipped in white chocolate and crushed pistachios. They’re the perfect sweet treat to serve at a party as both kids and adults will love them, they taste divine, and look so damn cute!
Meringues have the reputation of being really difficult to make, but they’re actually pretty easy. I still whisk mine by hand, you definitely don’t need an electric whisk or a fancy stand mixer. In fact, it’s very easy to over whisk your egg whites when using electric mixers, which can cause your meringues to collapse. Just take your time, get a good whisking action going, follow my tips below, and your meringues should come together no problem.
A few tips for getting perfect meringues:
- Wash a bowl with hot soapy water (even if it’s clean, wash it again), dry it with clean kitchen roll, then put a few drops of lemon juice in the bowl. Spread the lemon juice around the whole bowl, right up the sides as well, using another clean, dry sheet of kitchen roll. This ensures the bowl is completely grease-free, and will make it much easier to get light, fluffy, firm meringue.
- Spray a baking tray with Frylight, or something similar, or brush with a little oil and place a sheet of baking parchment on top. This will stop the paper from moving when you’re piping onto it. Don’t get any oil or spray on top of the sheet though. Where you’re going to be piping should be clean and dry.
- Don’t be inpatient like me, make sure the black food colouring is completely dry before you pick up your ghosts! Or they’ll end up with smudged faces like mine.
Ready in 3 hours, 10 mins (20 mins prep, 2 hours 30 mins bake, 20 mins decorate) – Makes about 16 ghosts.
Ingredients:
- The whites of 2 free-range eggs
- 100g of caster sugar
- 50g of white chocolate
- 40g of pistachios, finely chopped or blitzed in a food processor
- black food colouring
Method:
- Put the egg whites into a large bowl, and whisk until stiff and peaky. (See my tips above on how to prep your bowl to get perfect meringues)
- Add half of the sugar and whisk again until the meringue is shiny and stands in firm peaks.
- Whisk in the rest of the sugar until the meringue is very stiff, smooth and silky (so you can write your name in the mixture and can still read it a minute later).
- Preheat your oven to 110c / 100c fan / gas mark a quarter.
- Spoon the meringue into a piping bag with a round nozzle, and pipe about 16 ghosts onto your baking parchment. (See the tips section above for how to prep this.)
- Bake for 1hr 30mins, then turn the baking tray 180 degrees in the oven, to ensure an even bake.
- Bake for another 1 hr, or until the meringues are firm and crisp.
- Take them out of the oven and stand for a few mins, then peel them off the baking parchment and allow to cool.
- Melt the white chocolate, either over a bain marie, or for 30-40 seconds in the microwave.
- Dip each of the meringues, first in the chocolate, then into the chopped pistachios and place them back onto the baking parchment to set.
- While the chocolate is setting, paint faces onto your meringues with the black food colouring.
- Once completely dry, store in an airtight container.
If you liked this recipe, you may also like:
Pesky Recipes 