Over the past week, I’ve been house-sitting for my parents again. You might remember that, last time, I pouted because I thought I was getting blue cheese along with the house, but such was not the case. There may not have been blue cheese in the fridge this time, either, but there were an assortment of other goodies waiting for me upon my arrival (such as gourmet ice cream and soups, frozen corn, and permission to help myself to anything in the pantry).
As a result, I’ve been feasting like a queen on free edibles: rye toast with chilli jam, ice cream sprinkled with All Bran… okay, so maybe this doesn’t sound particularly exciting to you, but it was free! Free All Bran! Hurrah!
Plus, of course, there’s been the constant Internet access, being able to easily visit my beloved grandparents (both they who live up the road and she who resides over the hill), and this gorgeous face wanting to nuzzle me all the time:
Dear Parents: This photo is an optical illusion. I absolutely have not been letting Jedda up on the couch. Absolutely, postively not. Sincerely, your daughter with the growing nose.
Other benefits of house-sitting for my parents include their big electric mixer, and their pantry stocked with ingredients beyond my own budgetary allowance. It was my parents’ pantry, you see, that enabled me to make my magical three ingredient maple almond cake (using pricey real maple syrup and almond meal), and their big stand mixer that allowed me to make today’s recipe – my light-and-crispity-crunchety, sweet-yet-aromatic, can’t-stop-at-one Mini Chai Meringues.
As is patently obvious from the amount of sugar-flecked recipes I post here, I have a sweet tooth. What complicates this, however, is that my sweet tooth is more like a savoury-sweet tooth. I don’t enjoy super-sweet flavours, which probably explains my affinity for lemon-based, chilli- or salt-enhanced, and/or sugar-reduced desserts.
As a result, when I decided to make meringues, I couldn’t bear the thought of making just-sugar meringues. So I threw in some spices, and made what I hoped would be chai meringues. And you know what? They really do taste like sweet chai (at least to my mind).
What puts the figurative icing on the cake is that because these meringues are so sweet, they taste amazing when drizzled with peanut butter.
(Of course I went there. You should know me well enough by now to know I’ll put peanut butter on anything.)
Mini Chai Meringues
Makes 15-18, depending on size
- 2 egg whites, brought to room temperature
- pinch salt
- 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- Preheat oven to 120°C, and line two baking trays/cookie sheets with baking paper.
- Place the egg whites and pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer, and beat on high speed until soft peaks form.
- Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated and dissolved and the mixture is glossy. (To check if the sugar is dissolved, rub a bit of the meringue mixture between your fingers. You’re aiming to not feel graininess, or at least not much in the way of graininess.)
- Beat in the spices. Scoop out little spoonfuls of meringue onto the baking sheet, then place in the oven and bake for one hour.
- Turn oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for another two hours.
- Eat one meringue plain immediately, in order to revel in its spiced sweet airy mystique, then make sure you eat at least one spread with a little peanut butter or almond butter every time you find yourself in the kitchen. This will make your life happy.
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
Once more, missing my oven. Note to self: harass Rish to harass the agent to get it fixed again.
Or you could harass the agent yourself?
I would absolutely make these for you, except I’m no longer housesitting and am not prepared to beat the meringue by hand…
Hahaha how cute are you with their dog on the couch?? If it’s any consolation, I can’t keep my mini dog off the couch or bed
And the meringues are so perfect! I literally just looked up a recipe to make floating islands this afternoon. And chai is my favorite drink in the world… I wonder if chai floating islands would be any good…? Maybe with peanut butter sauce like you suggested instead of the usual caramel sauce? I smell an experiment
Jedda kept sitting by my bed at night and whining because I wouldn’t let her up… but my single bed is too small for me to by comfy with her on it!
I bet chai-flavoured floating islands would be wonderful!! I see no reason why it wouldn’t work
I hope you try it and tell us all!
I love you for making these. I want to sandwich them with Nutella and eat 48 thousand for breakfast every day.
I’ve been sandwiching them with peanut butter, but Nutella would definitely work!. And I love you too
So THESE are the addictive meringues you spoke of on Facebook. They look like sweet little baby clouds! And with PB? OHH. I can only imagine how yummy.
They are indeed
And remember, there’s vegan meringue mix in the parcel that will eventually be sent your way…
OOH! I’d forgotten! Yesss!
And I’ve forgotten what we decided… do you want me to send it off now? If so, email me your address lady! It can be like an early Christmas present, or you could save it for actual Christmas
Ohhhh… nice idea! And perfect for me to use to give out at Christmas. They sound kind of Christmassy.
You’re right, these would be wonderful for Christmas! Both in terms of the spices and the fact that you can make them in advance and they’ll keep really well
Hmm. I wonder if there is a way of incorporating peanut butter into a meringue without knocking out all the air.
Oooh! Brilliant idea. There’s this (horrible, really) stuff called PB2 in the US which is a peanut powder make from horrifically defatted peanuts… that might work?!
Well, I don’t know. That really doesn’t look like your nose. Are you sure? It’s definitely not from my side of the family…
It’s from Pinocchio’s side of the family
Meringues ares something of a guilty pleasure of mine – I mean, they’re just egg whites and sugar! But so crispy and the way they dissolve in your mouth and if they happen to get just a bit caramelized in the oven…
No guilt, just pleasure, please!
After all, they’re just egg whites and sugar. That’s pretty much the same thing as broccoli…
Not a health-guilt thing, a pastry snob-guilt thing.
Ah, of course. Because meringues like these don’t have creme brulee inside and multiple adornments on top. (I don’t think I’ll ever stop crying about missing out on one of your complex patisserie creations!)
mmm what a delicious idea!
Thanks! They’re mighty tasty
I suspect that these would be delicious (without the PB I must say), but I have a sneaking doubt that they may not be low GI. And I love how you’ve totally been sprung with the dog on the couch.
LOL Louise … all I know is that the dog won’t try it with us. She knows who’s boss and who’s a pushover! She might whinge at us but she’ll get no joy. We are the MEAN ones. Looks like we’ll have to go away and leave Hannah in charge again.
You’re talking about the dog aren’t you? Knowing who’s the boss, and who’s a pushover? Oh wait, or is it Hannah?
I think she meant that Jedda knows who’s boss (mum and dad) and who’s a pushover (me). You see, Jedda has always thought she’s higher on the hierarchy than me. I’ve just come to accept it
Hmm.. could you make meringues with your fancy low gi sugar?
I could use the low GI sugar, but I don’t think the texture would be that good. I haven’t used the low GI sugar in any true baking stuff as yet, well apart from your muesli and my baked rhubarb- in both those dishes the sugar doesn’t really melt it stays quite particulate and separately crunchy, and wouldn’t be all that good in a meringue texture. What did you do with the egg yolks? I never have any good ideas, and sometimes feed them to the dogs to make their coats glossy, which seems sort of wasteful.
Hmm, yes, if the sugar is non-dissolve-y, that might be an issue. You’ll never know until you try, though! Or could you get away with pairing normal meringues with somethign low-gi? (LIKE PEANUT BUTTER?
)
*laughs and laughs* Jedda definitely got a couple of egg yolks!!
At least I don’t CONSTANTLY talk to her in baby talk!
Aww who could resist that face! Look at that face!!!
I know, right? Irresistible!
meringues and peanut butter – surely there is room for chocolate too and I would find myself becoming quite partial to meringues
I think I understand your need to have flavours other than just sweet sweet sugar – that is why I so often bake with chocolate but I have started to use other spices more because it just brings out the chocolate flavour more.
Now I want to sandwich two meringues with melted chocolate and peanut butter! You people are a terrible influence on me
I think I’m incapable of not adding spices to everything these days. Even my breakfast oatmeal has become the repository for cinnamon, ground ginger, and cardamom!
Chai Meringues!! Amazing. I loved reading this – it is oh so familiar to me
I used to get so excited about feasting on the delights in my parent’s pantry/fridge. They buy the good brands, see! hehe. Cute pup.
Heidi xo
Yep, we understand each other perfectly then!
Hurrah for parents’ pantries! And I shall pass on your compliment to the dog…
One day I would like you to post a recipe of peanut butter with peanut butter. You could call it Peanut Butter^2. You should probably do this while at your parents so you can use their peanut butter. I’ve written peanut butter so many times now it seems wrong. Peanut butter. Peanut. Butter. Spoon. Now.
Sadly, my mum is allergic to peanuts, so peanut butter is somethign I shall never find at their place!
You really shouldn’t have challenged me to Peanut Butter^2 (I shouldn’t admit how long it took me to find the “^” on the keyboard…) You know I’m going to do that now.
Also, peanut butter can never be wrong.
I have recently fallen in love with Chai but I had no idea how to use it!
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe
This is more chai-inspired that using actual chai… but then again you could grind real chai powder finely and use that here, I’m sure!
Oh I’m sure the chai flavor in this is amazing!
It was great!
Oh……pretty pretty meringues and Jedda – so gorgeous!
I was happy to get a photo where she wasn’t just a blob of indistinct black! She doesn’t photograph well…
Jedda has that look going on that says how much fun the couch sitting is huh. Cool doggy.
Actually, I think that was more her “Why won’t you pat me? Whhhhyyyy? Stop playing with the computer and pat me!” look
oh how delightful are these!!
And did you say chilli jam?? We are addicted to that stuff in our house right now….I’m talking a jar a week!
Hurrah, a fellow chilli jam fiend! It’s sooooo good, although I’d prefer mine to be a little spicier. What brand do you use?
I love that extreme gloss that meringues get pre-cooking. I can just imagine the smell too! My favourite thing about other people’s kitchen’s is usually the gadgets. I once house-sat for someone with a gally kitchen off the main kitchen…complete with commercial oven and lots of kitchenaid goodies. *swoon.
My mum is heavily anti-gadget, but at least they have a stand mixer! That house-sitting kitchen sounds AMAZING, though. I would’ve found it hard to leave!
Oooh, a stand mixer … in my fully equipped kitchen dreams.
Love the chai addition!
Me too! In fact, I’d even settle for hand-held electric beaters at this point in time… until then, I’ll have to keep trekking to my parents’ place
OH my goodness, my husband would fall over for those. He loves both meringues and chai! What a perfect combo! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
You’re more than welcome!! I hope he likes these if you give them a try!
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