Brown Sugar Meringue With Chocolate Cream

Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 100 g chocolate (your choice of , milk or dark)
• 200 ml cream

Recipe

• 1 directions are as per taste magazine, april 2009 but i've added my changes after the **.
• 2 preheat oven to 140°c put 2 x 20cm flan rings (without bases) on baking trays lined with baking paper. either line inside of rings with strips of baking paper (use a dab of meringue later on to hold the strips of paper in place) or lightly brush the inside of the rings with melted butter and dust with flour. **i didn't have flan rings so just drew 20cm circles on the baking paper and spread out as close to lines as i could. the mixture spread out a little so maybe 18cm circles would've been better but up to you.
• 3 push brown sugar through a coarse sieve. whip egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually beat in the brown sugar 1 tbsp at a time. continue whisking for 2-3 minutes until thick and satiny. divide meringue between the flan rings, being careful not to knock out air. smooth the surface with a knife.
• 4 bake for 1 hour, preferably on the same shelf, otherwise alternate the position of the meringues once or twice during baking. remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. carefully slip a slim sharp knife between meringue and flan ring to loosen, then leave to cool completely.
• 5 when cool, put a light cake rack on top of each meringue, invert, then peel off the paper. loosen from flan ring and remove ring, then turn meringue top side up again. **i was too busy to do any of this and just left them on the baking tray until i assembled it all together.
• 6 melt chocolate with 3 tbsp water in a microwave, or in a small saucepan over gentle heat, stirring continually. cool. whip cream until just thick and holding shape — and this is important — if it is too stiff it will turn buttery by the time the chocolate is folded in (if this happens, let it down with a little liquid cream — it may help). pour in chocolate and gently fold cream and chocolate together with a large spoon. ** i didn't get all the 'lumps' out of the chocolate (90% melted) and it resulted in lovely crunch throughout the cream. make sure the chocolate is cool enough that it wont melt the cream.
• 7 put 1 meringue on a cake stand or plate, then spread with chocolate cream filling. put the other meringue on top and dust with icing sugar. refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving, or up to 8 hours (it keeps well, refrigerated, for 2-3 days). ** a dab of cream on the plate will stop the meringue sliding around. as for it keeping i can't promise that as it lasted a total of 3 hours lol.