Lemon Meringues
- Ready In:
- 4hrs 45mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
-
MERINGUES
- 2 egg whites
- 1 pinch salt
- 1⁄2 cup sugar, super-fine if possible
- 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1⁄4 teaspoon almond extract
-
LEMON CREAM
- 1 1⁄2 cups sugar
- 1⁄3 cup potato starch
- 2 cups water
- 3 lemons, juice of (about 1/3 cup)
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 (8 ounce) container whipping cream
-
GARNISHES
- 2 ounces semisweet chocolate
- 1 teaspoon margarine
- 6 hazelnuts or 6 cashews
directions
- MERINGUES:.
- Allow the egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- If you are short on time, place the egg whites in a stainless steel bowl and set it in a bowl of warm water for 2 minutes to bring the whites to room temperature quickly.
- Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to the lowest possible temperature, 140ºF-175ºF.
- Place the egg whites in the bowl of a mixer.
- With the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites with the salt about 5 minutes or until soft peaks form; the tips will curl.
- Gradually add the sugar, beating on high until stiff peaks form; the tips will stand straight and sugar will be dissolved.
- Fold in vanilla and almond extracts.
- Evenly spread the meringues into 12 circles.
- Flatten slightly so they have a diameter of about 3"to4" circles.
- Place the two baking sheets in the oven for 4 hours.
- When they are done, remove from the parchment; if the bottoms are sticky in the center, return them to the oven for longer.
- You want them completely dried out but not browned.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- When completely cool, place in an airtight covered container.
- Store at room temperature for up to three days.
- LEMON CREAM:.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and potato starch.
- Whisk in the water, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Boil for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat.
- Stir in lemon juice.
- In a small bowl, stir the egg yolks with a fork.
- Add a spoonful of the lemon cream to the eggs.
- Slowly stir the egg mixture into the lemon cream.
- Continue to cook for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat.
- Cool for 15 minutes.
- Cover the top of the filling with plastic wrap, making sure it touches the cream or a skin will form.
- Cool to room temperature or refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days in advance.
- In a large bowl, with mixer at a high speed, whip the whipping cream.
- With a rubber spatula, gently fold in 3/4 of the whipped cream into the lemon cream.
- Reserve rest of whipped cream for dollop on top.
- GARNISHES:.
- Over a double boiler or in a microwave, melt the chocolate with the margarine.
- Roll each nut in the chocolate and gently remove with a fork to a sheet of wax paper.
- Let stand until chocolate is set and shiny; can be put in refrigerator for 5 minutes.
- Store in an airtight container until ready for use.
- HOW TO ASSEMBLE:.
- Spread half the meringues with lemon cream.
- Top with remaining meringues.
- Place a small dollop of whipped cream on the top of each "sandwich" and top with a chocolate dipped hazelnut or cashew.
- Serve immediately.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>