SKUIMPIES



Following on from my lasagne post I am still busy with typical South African dishes/treats/desserts. Like I said before, I know not all of these originated in South Africa but that's not what I'm after. I want to learn how to make the food I grew up with before delving back into all sorts of other weird and wonderful things the rest of the world has to offer. You can't make bobotie wontons if you don't know how to make a bobotie! And that is the point - basics first!

So…meringues. Or in Afrikaans, skuimpies.


I must admit I am not the biggest fan of meringues but for some reason most people absolutely love them. I got an e-mail from a dear friend (who married my best friend this weekend) asking if I would make skuimpies for her dessert table at the wedding. Having never made them before and knowing that this will be on display for all to see and captured on the wedding photos to forever remind me of it, the first thought I had was "At least I can buy them at P'nP if mine turns out to be a disaster".

But I'm glad to say they turned out perfectly and made their way onto the Zandberg wedding dessert table!

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients

3 eggs
2 cups castor sugar
60ml boiling water
30ml white wine vinegar
4ml baking powder


Method

Pre-heat the oven to 100 degrees
Cover 2 baking trays with heavy duty foil (shiny side on top)
Separate the eggs - you only need the egg whites
Add the egg whites, castor sugar, water and vinegar into a mixing bowl and mix on a fast speed until the mixture leaves a stiff peak when you swipe your finger through it.
Fold in the baking powder
Scoop into a  piping bag and squeeze it out onto the foil just like the tannie in the ice-cream van used to do with your soft-serve! You are allowed to play better background music though.
Bake them for about 3 hours, then turn off the oven but leave them in there overnight.


Keep them in an air-tight container especially in humid conditions like we're having in Joburg at the moment.

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