I haven't made meringues for months and months!
For several months, I just couldn't. My stand mixer was standing idle, waiting for parts to arrive from Australia (yes, it did occur to me that maybe some helpful staff member was swimming between here and Australia - how else could it take so long..?). But it was my own fault the mixer needed to go to the fixer; I taxed it by asking it to soften some fondant for me. It tried valiantly, and then something 'went' in the gear box thingy.
And then life got insanely busy, with so many projects on the go and so much camping to be done over summer.
Anyway, yesterday I finally felt inspired to make meringues. We've going to a big beach barbecue this afternoon and some friends for dinner tonight, and I'll be taking meringues along to both.
The first batch I made were cocoa-almond. I've done this flavour before, but the recipe has dropped off my website in the changeover. All I did was add 2 teaspoons of cocoa and 1/4 cup of ground almonds to the standard Angel Food vegan meringue recipe. I dusted the tops with cocoa before baking, and baked them for just 20 minutes, so the insides are still a little gooey.
Then I made orange-chilli meringues, and they're my new favourite! I replaced the water in the standard recipe with fresh orange juice, and added about 1 teaspoon of orange zest, 1/8 teaspoon chilli powder, a pinch of salt and 2 tiny drops of orange colouring. They took 30 minutes to bake.
Next time I'd add a tiny bit more colouring, and sprinkle some zest on top before baking.
The colouring is quite hard to gauge, because it intensifies as the cookies bake and the water evaporates.
This last photo ain't pretty, but the taste is fabulous! It's a baked banana stuffed with dark choc drops and crystallised ginger. So good.
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