Brown sugar & hazelnut meringues

I made these wonderful meringues from the equally wonderful Coffee & bites by Susie Theodorou. Coffee & bites has a lot of delicious recipes and with each recipe Susie recommends what coffee is best to drink with the particular dish. Eventhough I’m not much of a coffeedrinker this book is still one of my favourite cookbooks. It has so many great recipes and the pictures are very, very beautiful.

The flavour in these special meringues come from the dark brown sugar that is used. The molasses in the brown sugar gives them their lovely flavour and light brown colour. Hazelnuts are partly mixed into the meringue and partly scattered on top. Their taste goes very well with the caramel-like molasses taste of the brown sugar. They are just the way I love them: crunchy on the outside and still chewy on the inside.



makes about 18

75 g (2 ½ oz) egg white (about 2 egg whites)
150 g (5 oz) dark brown sugar
30 g (1 oz) hazelnuts

Preheat the oven at 150ºC (300ºF). Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Combine the egg white and the sugar in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Meanwhile make shavings from the hazelnuts using a vegetable peeler or chop thinly with a knife.
Remove the bowl from the pan and beat the mixture with an electric mixer for about 15 minutes until stiff. Fold in half of the hazelnuts. Make heaps of about 2 teaspoons of meringue, spacing them well apart. Sprinkle with the remaining hazelnuts.
Bake the meringues for 15 minutes. Turn off the oven and don’t open the door. Leave in the oven overnight before serving.

Susie recommends to drink espresso or espresso corretto made with full-bodied dark roasted Kenyan AA beans with these meringues.

1 meringue – 40 kcal
100 g – 320 kcal

carbohydrate 57 g – protein 5 g – fat 8 g (saturated fat 0 g) – fibre 1 g