MANGO & PASSIONFRUIT MERINGUES

These delights are Adrienne Jones’ signature “ladies, a plate please” dish. “Within my family, I’ve always been the one to make pavlovas or meringues for family gatherings. For this particular recipe, I adapted an old pavlova recipe, then put my own spin on it. Meringues are such a great plate to take to bbqs or pot luck dinners. There are never any leftovers, so you head home feeling very pleased with yourself - and with a nice, clean plate.

Ingredients

6 Craft Farmers’ egg whites (at room temperature)
2 cups caster sugar
2 tbsp freeze dried mango powder
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp cornflour
300ml cream
1/4 - 1/2 cup passionfruit curd

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 110-120C.
2. In a large metal, china or glass (not plastic) bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (using an electric beater). Gradually, a teaspoonful at a time, add the caster sugar slowly. The mixture should be getting glossy, thick and shiny with each addition and the whole sugar-adding process should take at least 15 minutes. Beat in the mango powder, vinegar and cornflour.
3. Spoon or pipe the mixture out in little dollops onto a baking-paper-covered tray. Bake for about 45 minutes until dry and crisp. The meringues should lift off the paper easily.
4. Cool on a wire rack, and stick them together in pairs with passionfruit whipped cream when cold.

PASSIONFRUIT CREAM

Whip the cream, until soft peaks form and then fold in the passionfruit curd. Be careful not to use too much passionfruit curd or the passionfruit flavour will overpower the mango flavour of the meringues.

Tip

If the eggs are too fresh, the whites will not whip well, so use eggs that are at least a week old for this recipe.

PASSIONFRUIT CURD

Passionfruit is Adrienne Jones' favourite fruit. "As a child visiting my Nana in late summer/autumn, I would make sure I sat on the left-hand side of the car on the way there (not an easy feat, with three siblings to out manoeuvre). Why? So I could hop out when we arrived and run down to the side of her garage where the passionfruit vine was and eat my fill. Now, as a grown up, I’ve discovered that passionfruit curd makes the fruit go that little bit further. Perfect."

Ingredients

3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg yolks extra
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup passionfruit pulp (about 6 passionfruit)
40 mls lemon juice (2tbsp & 2 tsp)
150g butter, softened

Method

1. Place the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, passionfruit and lemon
juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Gradually add the butter, stirring continuously, until melted. Reduce the heat to low and cook for a further 6-8 minutes or until the curd has thickened. Makes 2 cups approximately.