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These festive walnut + poached pear meringues are the perfect light dessert after Christmas dinner
For the Meringue
80g Egg Whites (from 2 large eggs)
80g Caster Sugar
75g muscovado
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
80g Walnuts
280ml Double Cream
50g Dark Cooking Chocolate (70% cocoa)
For the Poached Pears
75ml Red Wine
3 Bay Leaves
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Star Anise
½ Lemon
20g Dark Muscovado Sugar
1 Vanilla Pod
2 Ripe Pears
Recipe
Start by heating the oven to 100°C. Put enough water in a medium saucepan to come a quarter of the way up the sides, and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, put the egg whites, caster sugar, the muscovado sugar and the ground cinnamon into a heat proof bowl and whisk to combine.
Turn down the heat under the pan, so the water is gently simmering, then put the mixing bowl over the pan making sure the base doesn’t touch the water.
Whisk for four minutes, until the egg whites are warm and frothy and the sugar has melted. Remove from the heat and mix for a further 4 minutes until the meringue mix should cool, stiff and glossy.
Finely chop half of the walnuts and carefully fold through your meringue mixture.
Next transfer the mix into a piping bag and pipe out 6 meringues on to a large oven tray lined with baking paper.
Use the back of a spoon to lift up the sides a little, making a small well and turning the meringues into 6-7cm-diameter nests.
Bake for 80 minutes.
While the meringues are cooking, peel and quarter the pears and place into an oven proof dish with the remaining poaching ingredients.
Place them into your Caple steam oven on the full steam setting for 20 minutes to create the perfect poached pears.
Melt the dark chocolate and leave it to slightly cool before gently brushing all over the inside of the cool meringue, carefully avoiding the edges.
Once the pears are cooked remove them from the oven. They should be red and festive.
Next, place the cream and vanilla seeds in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip on high speed for a minute, until it forms stiff peaks.
Top Tip: be careful not to overwhip your cream!
The chocolate meringue nests should now be set.
Spoon a generous heap of the cream into each nest,
Place a couple of pieces of pear onto each nest and using the remaining walnuts, finely chop and sprinkle with cinnamon on top of the meringues.
You can even grate a little dark chocolate on top of you’re feeling idulgent!
Any remaining juices from the poached pears can be drizzled on the plate to finish.
Enjoy!
