Mini Meringues

We found a pot of mini meringues in Aldi a while back and popped them in the cupboard 'for later'.  Later is now upon us (as were the meringues - they fell out the cupboard and prompted us to think of how to use them).  So, we had a few thoughts and decided on using chocolate as well.

Here's what we were going to use:- the mini meringues, some foil petit four cases and some dark chocolate chips.

The chocolate chips were melted.  We have 'perfected' our technique - Sous Chef J puts the choc chips in a small bowl and we then place the bowl in some hot water and it's left to melt. No need for huge amounts of heat for the small number of chips we melted for this recipe.

Once the chocolate was melted, it was removed from the hot water and Sous Chef J mixed it through with a small silicone spatula.

The bowl of chocolate was placed on a heat proof mat and then each mini meringue's flat bottom was dipped into the chocolate.  Meringues were sandwiched together in pairs and placed on a cooling rack to allow the chocolate to set.

Having paired all the meringues, we drizzled the remaining chocolate over.  Some colourful sugar crystals were sprinkled on by Sous Chef J.

It was then a simple job to wait for the chocolate to completely dry before placing each meringue pair in a festive foil petit four case. 

Finally, they were boxed up ready to store before we eat them over Christmas and the New Year.

Simple Strawberry Meringues

As the weekend has been busy, we needed a quick pudding. Sous Chef J is a fan of meringues, so we grabbed the three 'ingredients' and made our speedy individual meringue cakes.

 What we used were some shop bought mini meringues, a few strawberries and a small amount of double cream.

 Sous Chef J hulled and sliced a few strawberries.

 He then whipped the cream.








Finally, two of the mini meringues were sandwiched together with a big blob of whipped cream, placed in a cake case and the sliced strawberries were placed on top.  You could use other fresh fruits such as slices of kiwi fruit, cherries or grapes... whatever takes your fancy.