Micromastering Meringues

"The long summer days went by, slowly at first and then gathering speed, as days do which are filled from dawn till dusk with idleness" Nancy Mitford - The Blessing

I'm currently in that no man's land between doing uni work and graduating and panicking. I am very much purposeless and that scares me. So I was reading a Guardian article on the art of micromastery, learning how to do one thing really REALLY really well.

**** If this sounds like something you need in your life, look up the book, Micromastery by Robert Twigger, Penguin Life. ****

I'm still finding it hard to shake post dissertation guilt and so I thought why not give myself a purpose, to make a freakin great meringue. I am so bad at relaxing I have to trick myself into doing it but equally concentrating on this one task was a very mindful experience. Gone was the mindless searching on Pinterest for recipes I will never use, I looked for one with the ingredients I had and started.

So today I set forth with eggs and sugar and made some meringues. Recipe and Method below.

Ooo, and thanks to A Bookish Baker for the original recipe. 

Pink Meringues

Makes 12-14

Recipe:

4 egg whites

200g Caster Sugar

Pink Food Colouring (or any colour)

Method:

1. Put the oven on 130 degrees

2. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, do this one at a time over a mug adding the separated whites one at a time into the mixing bowl. This way if you break a yolk you haven't wasted all your egg whites. 

3. Using a hand mixer whisk the egg whites together until they are stiff and white  (you can do the over the head test if you trust yourself, hold the bowl upside down over your head) Have your sugar ready, (I used the same mug to measure it into, less washing up) 

4. Slowly add the sugar, the mixture will end up stiffer (the famous stiff peaks) and glossy. 

5. Cover a baking tray with baking parchment and spoon the mixture onto the tray. They can be as big as you like! Use bits of meringue to hold the corners of the baking paper down if it curls up

6. Take a skewer and dip it into the food colouring. Swirl it into the surface of the meringues so it is as dark or as pastel as you like. Repeat for any other colours you are using. You will have to wipe off the skewer as you go otherwise you'll dip bits of meringue into your food colouring. 

7. Put the trays in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes, after that turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven to cool down. 

8. EAT AND TAKE PRETTY INSTAGRAMS!!!

This method is full of things I learnt along the way, the addition of the pink was also my own choice to make the recipe my own. How shall I improve on this?

Improvements to make:

• Add edible glitter, um hello unicorn sugar mountains

• Leave to dry out for longer, I like mine chewy though but others may not, the bigger ones were could have been more cooked

• Use a piping bag to create cool shapes

Future Meringue recipes to try:

Easy:

Aspirational: