Demerara Meringues

Have you heard of meringues? Well, if you haven't, then they are a simple, delicious dessert with only two ingredients! Normally, meringues are made with caster sugar (white sugar) but in this recipe they are made with demerara sugar (brown sugar). They are really simple to make, but they take ages to cook, so don't make them at the last minute!

You will need: Two egg whites and 100 grams of demerara sugar. (Yes, it's really that simple!)

First, you need to seperate the yolk from the white of the egg. Put a bowl on the worktop. Crack the egg so it is in two halves, then slowly pour all the egg, yolk and white, into one half of the egg shell. Then, pour it slowly back into the other eggshell. The white of the egg should dribble out, and the yolk should not. Carry on doing this and after a while, you should be left with all the white in a bowl underneath and the yolk in the shell. You can use the two yolks to make an ommelette if you add another whole egg later!

Next, beat the egg whites until stiff. If you lift up the electric whisk, it should create a little peak in the egg whites, which should be stiff enough to hold. Now, you can pour in roughly half of the sugar. Continue to whisk it with an electric whisk, then pour in the other half of the sugar. Fold it in with a metal spoon. Make sure the mixture is really stiff: tip the bowl carefully upside down over the worksurface. If your'e feeling really brave, tip it over your head to see if it holds!

Now, get a spoonful of the mixture and place it onto a tray with baking paper on it. This recipe makes 12 - 16 meringues, so they should all be able to fit on the same tray. You can shape the meringues with a skewer, or a knife to look how you want them too.

Bake the meringues in a oven preheated at 120°C, 100°C if you have a fan oven,  for 2 hours. Once they are cooked, turn them on their sides and leave them in the oven (turned off) overnight, or for as long as possible. I told you it took ages!!!

These meringues taste really good with fruits like raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi... anything really. You can pour over some cream too! Another thing you could do is make a pavlova - a giant meringue with a dip in the middle. Fill the dip with whipped cream and fruit. Delicious!!!