Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Keeping to the ice cream theme, I’m excited to say that the Gelateria ice cream maker on loan for a few weeks from Gaggia (after their coffee & ice cream event) arrived last week! I have been having so much fun and eating far too much ice cream! It’s almost become one of my new foods groups – protein, carbs, fruit & veg and ice cream!

I was longing to get creating wacky flavours straight away but in a moment of clarity decided it was probably wise to start at the beginning with a simple vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is apparently the nations favourite ice cream flavour, which seems a little boring in my view, but then I suppose it all comes down to the quality of the ice cream. You can get really good vanilla ice creams made with eggs, cream and real vanilla or really bad vanilla ice cream.

This vanilla ice cream is firmly in the ‘good’ category – it’s so smooth and creamy and absolutely bursting with real vanilla flavour. Just look at all those little black speckles – that’s not dirt – its vanilla!

When I came to use my vanilla pods I discovered I didn’t have any fresh squishy ones and only the brittle dry pieces that I store in my sugar. I had a brain wave and blitzed the vanilla, seeds, pod and all, in a spice grinder along with a little sugar. This transformed the dry vanilla into the most amazing vanilla pod powder. Still packed full of flavour and no wastage – hurrah.

The thing I am most impressed about with this ice cream maker is that you can lift off the entire lid covering the bowl where the ice cream is churned, even during freezing. This means you can easily pour in your ice cream mix, throw in some add-ins or sauces without having to try and drizzle it through a small spout at the top like other ice cream machines I’ve seen. This makes it far easier to check how your ice cream is progressing and actually get the mix in there in the first place without pouring it down the sides.

The resulting ice cream was amazing. Using the ground up whole vanilla pod really gave an intense vanilla flavour and I love how the little seeds were noticeably speckled throughout. It was rich, smooth and creamy thanks to the fast freeze and churn action which prevents large ice crystals from forming. Yum!

There is going to be a whole series of ice creams creations appearing shortly. I’ve already made another ice cream this weekend, inspired by one of my favourite cake flavours. Check back later in the week to see which one!

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
(Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz)

Ingredients
150g caster sugar
350ml milk
3 egg yolks
200ml double cream
½ vanilla pod (fresh or dry – see note below)

Method
Cut the vanilla in half and scrape out the seeds. Combine the seeds and pod to the milk and cream and heat together in a small saucepan until very hot but not bubbling.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Pour a little of the hot milk over the egg yolks and quickly whisk to temper the mixture and prevent it from scrambling. Add more of the milk to the egg yolks whisking all the time.
Then pour the eggy milky mixture back into the saucepan and place over a low heat. Use a silicone spatula to gently stir the mixture until it begins to thicken. This may take up to 5 minutes. Do not allow it to bubble or boil or else it will split.
The ice cream mix is ready once it coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from the heat and pour into a clean bowl.
Allow to cool slightly before refrigerating for at least 2 hours or until chilled.
Pour the chilled ice cream into your ice cream maker (remove the vanilla pod first) and blend until frozen to the desired consistency, around 20-30minutes.
Eat straight away or transfer to a container and keep for later.

Note: After making your ice cream base, it can be poured into a Tupperware container and frozen in a regular freezer. Just remove it from the freezer every 1-2hours and give it a whisk, to ensure it freezes evenly.

Note: I found all my vanilla pods were very dry and hard as I’d stored them in some sugar. I simply broke a piece off and blitzed it in a spice grinder with a little of the sugar to create my own vanilla bean powder. This was really intense and gave a wonderful speckled vanilla appearance to the finished ice cream.

Hotel Chocolat: Knickerbocker Glory Mint Choc Chip Truffles Review

I was recently asked if I would like to try something from Hotel Chocolat’s new birthday range. I love their chocolates and so was more than happy to accept. I was sent the Mint Choc Chip Truffles from their new Knickerbocker Glory range. A set of 10 creamy mint filled chocolates, encased in a thick dark chocolate shell and topped with the cutest mini chocolate chips I’ve ever seen!

The truffles come presented in a paper cone decorated with fun candy striped colours. On first appearance they may look a bit child orientated compared to some of Hotel Chocolat’s sleek dark boxes, and I’m sure children would love them, but that’s not to say they won’t be thoroughly enjoyed by adults too!

There are a few truffles assortments in the Knickerbocker Glory range, each one designed to bring back memories of childhood ice creams. Mint choc chip ice cream always makes me think of holidays and eating ice creams on the beach. I used to love mint Cornettos or mint Feasts you could get, so the truffles brought back quite nostalgic memories for me.

I loved the contrast between the soft and creamy minty filling and the thick dark chocolate shell. The filling was tinted the palest of mint greens, a nod towards its childhood ice cream flavour without being too artificial. A lovely fun gift to take to a friends for a dinner party or BBQ although I’m sure they’d appeal to all ages, they certainly did in my house.

GF Soda Bread

I realised this morning that I was out of bread and wanted some in time to enjoy with lunch. I have been meaning for some months to try making a gluten free soda bread, as I reasoned that the lack of proofing time and not having to reply on yeast for rising might produce a better gluten free loaf than I have so far managed. Being short of time I decided that today was the right time to give it a shot.

I used an assortment of different flours in my loaf, using up what I had on hand, but I’m sure using a flour blend or just one or two different flours would work just as well. A combination of different flours seem to produce the best gluten free results as they all have slightly different textures, flavours, thickness capabilities so combining them usually gives better results. Some are slightly coarse, other soft and powdery etc.

My mix came together in a matter of moments, almost too quick for the oven to heat up. As soon as I added the milk I could see the bicarbonate of soda starting to get to work and producing little air pockets in the soft spongy dough.

The dough was quite soft and sticky, but this is again preferable for a gluten free dough as the lighter texture allows it to rise more easily as there is no gluten to add elasticity.

I placed it in the oven and hoped for the best. The resulting loaf was fantastic! The best looking loaf of gluten free bread I have so far produced. It rose well and developed a lovely rustic crack along the top. The crust was wonderfully thick while the interior crumb had a close texture but was deliciously light and moist. It had a definite grainy, savoury note thanks to the buckwheat and chickpea flour, which I loved.

I think soda bread, like scones, is best enjoyed when still slightly warm from the oven. My favourite way to eat it is topped with some strong cheese which goes a little soft and melty on the still warm bread, or topped with some sour cherry jam for a sweet treat. Delicious!

I’m still going to continue my experiments with gluten free yeasted bread, but I might try adding a little bicarb in the mix too, just to give it a bit of head start.

GF Soda Bread

Ingredients
150g brown rice flour
100g buckwheat flour
100g gram/chickpea flour
50g brown teff flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
325ml milk
2 tsp honey

Method
Preheat the oven to 220C. Grease a deep 11x20cm loaf tin and line the base and up two sides with a long strip of greaseproof paper. (I didn’t do this and my bread stuck to the base, so I will next time!)
Weigh out all the flours and place into a large bowl along with the xanthan gum, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Mix all the dry ingredients together until combined.
Drizzle over the honey and then pour in the milk. Use a round bladed butter knife to mix the milk into the flour. Fold it gently and don’t over mix. It doesn’t want to be smooth and a few little lumps here and there are fine. It should be quite soft and sticky.
Spread the bread mix into the loaf tin and bake for 5 minutes. Then reduce the oven temperature to 200C and bake for 30-35 minutes longer, until risen, crusty and golden.
Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before running a knife around the edge and removing from the pan. Use the greaseproof strip to help you.
Allow to cool almost to room temperature before cutting in thick slices and serving. Great with a savoury assortment of cheese, pickles and soups or sweet with jam, cream cheese or nutella.
Makes 1 loaf.

Note: You can also bake this loaf free-form on a flat baking tray. Just shape it into a large round blob and bake!

An Evening of Coffee & Ice Cream

I have spoken recently of my longing for an automatic ice cream maker and it seems as though the ice cream gods have been listening as last week I was invited to attend an evening of coffee and ice cream run by Gaggia – an Italian company who make great coffee machines and also…a professional automatic ice cream maker!

Feeling very excited I turned up at a secret location in London (La Cucina Caldesi Cookery School) where I met up with two other bloggers – Dom from Chocoblog and Kevay from Kevay Eats, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting before.

We were introduced to a top barrister, Paul, who took us through the finer points of coffee growing, the importance of grinding and how to make the perfect cup of coffee. This was really interesting and I picked up lots of hints and tips. What Paul doesn’t know about coffee isn’t worth knowing!

Did you know that despite popular belief that keeping coffee in the fridge will keep it better this is actually not true – not in terms of brewing the perfect coffee anyway. It’s the oils in the coffee that contain the flavour and so keeping them in a cold place will make them harden and not release their flavour so effectively when used – imagine what would happen if you tried to keep your olive oil in the fridge. Also, taking the coffee in and out of the fridge every time you use it will keep altering the humidity and temperature within the bag, creating moisture, which will probably actually speed up the rate of deterioration. It’s best to just squeeze the air out of your bag of coffee and keep it in a cool dark cupboard instead.

Paul also explained how when using freshly ground coffee its important to only use the first shot, around 30ml to get the best purest flavour. An espresso shot amount. If you want a larger or weaker cup of coffee than an espresso, don’t simply leave the water running through the machine for longer, as this draws the bitterness out of the coffee resulting in a poor tasting coffee. Instead, just dilute your espresso shot with clean hot water or milk. To prove this to us he made an espresso shot of coffee, which produced a rich darkly coloured liquid with a thick crème head that smelt rich, slightly sweet and smoky. He then took another shotfull, which turned out much weaker in colour, with no crème head and smelt strongly like stale ashtrays – not pleasant. If you had used a large cup and left the water running you would ruin your first run of fabulous coffee by adding the stale ashtray into it. Try making a cup yourself both ways and you’ll see what I mean (sorry the photos a bit blurry).

We then got to experiment with the machines ourselves making espresso’s and cappuccinos.

Buzzing with caffeine we then moved onto ice cream. This was run by Jo Pratt who is a food stylist, writer and presenter. She was lovely and very easy to talk to. She showed us how to make two different batches of ice cream using the new automatic Gaggia Gelateria which doesn’t need any pre-freezing. One was a divine salted caramel ice cream and the other a delicious fresh strawberry and marshmallow ice cream.

The salted caramel one was divine – unbelievably smooth and so creamy. Just like the gelato I remember eating in Italy a few years ago. I’m not normally a caramel fan, as it often tastes just of sugar, but this one had such a depth of caramel flavour, sweet yet with a salty note. Jo also showed us how to make some cinnamon roasted pecans to accompany the ice cream. These were divine and I couldn’t stop munching them, were fabulous with the ice cream.

The strawberry ice cream was made with fresh pureed strawberries. This resulted in a pale, yet naturally pink tinted ice cream and the flavour…WOW! It was so fresh and summery and obviously strawberry flavoured. Goodness knows what shops put into their strawberry ice cream, but they never taste like this.

Then oh joy of joys, we were presented with an ice cream machine and a table of ingredients from which to create our own ice cream flavour – eeeeeeee!

I created a cinnamon (obviously) ice cream with fresh blueberries and crumbled pecan nuts. It was so much fun watching it churn in the ice cream machine and as I hadn’t added any additional liquid ingredients to the ice cream base, my ice cream was ready in about 20 minutes! You can’t beat that for speed. It ended up wonderfully thick and creamy. The cinnamon flavour was really pronounced, but I think next time I would cook the blueberries a bit of sugar as they stayed restively whole and went a bit hard. My ice cream was also lacking a bit of sweetness, I’ve learnt you have to over sweetened the mix as the sweetness flavour lessens after it’s frozen. I’ll know for next time.

Kevay created a delicious, yet incredibly alcoholic ice cream using chocolate liqueur, kahula coffee liqueur, chocolate chunks & toasted pecans. Whoa! This tasted almost of pure alcohol, but would be fantastic served in shot glasses with a dessert at a dinner party. Not one for children or the afternoons though.

Dom made a caramel ice cream with chocolate chunks, pecans and Grand Marnier liqueur. I really liked the combination of the chocolate and orange liqueur.

Everyone gabbed spoons and went round tasting all the different ice creams. Ooff I ate so much! I couldn’t decide which was my favourite and kept having ‘just one more spoonful’ of each just to check. I think in the end Jo’s strawberry ice cream (minus the marshmallows) was my favourite. It was so fresh and fruity.

The evening ended with Paul making some coffee cocktails and some amazing coffee art on the tops of some frothy coffees. Much more impressive than the usual cocoa dusting.

It was a fabulous evening and I went home buzzing thanks to a concoction of coffee, alcohol and copious amounts of ice cream. I was so overly stimulated, and different ice cream flavours kept floating into my head, that I didn’t sleep a wink that night but it was so worth it! I am longing to have my own ice cream maker even more now. The extra exciting news, that had me jumping up and down in delight, is that Gaggia are going to loan me the Gelateria for a couple of weeks to see if I can create some new ice cream flavours!!! How cool is that?!

Below are the recipes for Jo’s caramel and strawberry ice creams, with (hopefully) some of my own to follow shortly.

Strawberry Mallow Ice Cream

150ml milk
2 large egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
125g caster sugar
150ml double cream
250g fresh ripe strawberries
75g mini marshmallows, or larger ones, chopped

Pour the milk into a saucepan gently bring to the boil.
Beat together the egg yolks, vanilla extract and roughly half of the sugar until they are pale and creamy. Stir in the hot milk, return the liquid to the saucepan and stir continuously over a low heat until it thickens and just starts to coat the back of your spoon (it should be the consistency of double cream). Make sure you don’t boil the custard because it may separate and curdle. If you feel it is getting too hot, remove from the heat and just continue stirring until it thickens.
Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the cream and leave to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, place the strawberries and remaining half of caster sugar in a food processor or liquidiser and blend until smooth. Push through a sieve to remove any seeds. Stir into the cooled custard along with the marshmallows.
Place in the ice-cream machine and churn for 30 minutes, until thick and frozen.
Note: If you don’t have time to make your own custard, then simply use 250ml of bought ready-made custard and stir in 200ml double cream before adding the pureed strawberries and marshmallows.

Caramel Ice Cream with Cinnamon Pecans
The pecans are a delicious serving suggestion, but are equally good eaten on their own.

Caramel Ice Cream
150g caster sugar
200ml milk
4 large egg yolks
200ml double cream
large pinch of salt

Pecans
200g pecans
½ egg white
½ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
75g caster sugar

To make the ice-cream, place half of the sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, and gently heat until the sugar dissolves and turns to a deep golden colour. To ensure even colouring, swirl the pan a couple of times throughout. Once the sugar has caramelised, leave to cool for about 5 minutes before adding the milk. Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring until the caramel dissolves into the milk.
Meanwhile, beat together the egg yolks, salt and remaining half of sugar until pale in colour. Stir in the caramel milk, then add the cream. Leave to cool completely before pouring into the ice-cream machine and churning for 30 minutes, until thick and frozen.

To make the pecans, pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan ovens/gas 6.
Lightly whisk the egg white until it is frothy. Add the pecans, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Mix until the nuts are evenly coated before transferring to a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread into a single layer, and bake for 8-10 minutes until they are crunchy. Cool for a few minutes before breaking any that have stuck together.
The pecans are now ready to scatter over the top of the finished ice-cream.

Pea Pod & Mint Soup. Plus a visit from the Fairy Hobmother!

The humble pea is one of my favourite vegetables. There is just something irresistible about its vibrant green colour and sweet flavour. I love how each tiny pea is encased in its own outer jacket, each one a mini vegetable in its own right. A bag of frozen peas is one of my staple freezer ingredients. There is nothing wrong with frozen peas, if fact in most cases they are actually tastier and more nutritious this way than fresh, as peas very quickly loose all sweetness and nutritional quality from the minute they are picked. Frozen peas are usually picked and frozen within 4 hours, meaning you get them almost as fresh as can be. Packets of so called ‘fresh peas’ in supermarkets have probably been sitting around for at least 4-5 days, meaning those once sweet peas will be hard cardboard bullets by the time you eat them.

However, if you can get your hands on some fresh peas, home grown, picked and eaten within a few hours, they are sublime! I am fortunate enough to know someone who has a farm growing veg and last weekend she was selling bags of freshly picked peas – still in their pods – at a farmers market. I snapped a bag up instantly and sat their happily devouring the peas like sweeties. Gently popping open the pods and scooping up the delicate row of peas inside. So sweet and tender.

After munching all the peas I was left with quite a pile of empty pea pods. I hate throwing anything away and so tried eating one – not really a good idea – very tough and stringy and it didn’t beak down no matter how long I chewed. Despite its unappetising texture, it contained a wonderful pea flavour and so I decided to try and turn them into soup.

Lightly cooked with simply an onion, a potato and some pea loving mint my soupy broth mixture was ready in a matter of minutes. After blitzing I sieved the soup which removed all the tough fibres from the pea pods and resulted in a rich velvety soup with a thick creamy texture.

The taste was amazing. Pure essence of pea and so fresh and summery. The mint wasn’t overpowering and gave just a slight lingering aftertaste which complemented the pea. I loved its beautiful pea green colour and pure pea aroma.

Amazing to thick I got such a pea packed soup for practically nothing as the main ingredients are water and empty pods which I’d normally discard. So remember, after munching those fresh peas – don’t throw the pods away, make pea pod soup!

Pea Pod & Mint Soup

Ingredients
500g empty pea pods – eat the peas first!
1¾ pints hot water
1 large onion
1 large or 2 small potatoes
15 leaves of fresh mint
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method
Peel and roughly chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, stir and then place the lid on to allow the onion to sweat and soften gently.
Meanwhile, dice the potato (no need to peel) and roughly chop the garlic.
Once the onion has started to soften, add the potato and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes more.
Boil the kettle and measure out the water. Add the mint leaves and pea pods (no need to chop) to the pan and stir briefly.
Pour over the water, add some freshly ground salt and pepper and bring the mixture to the boil. Then reduce to a simmer, place the lid on with just a small gap to allow some steam to escape and allow to bubble for 15-20 minutes.
Check that the potatoes are cooked by sticking the tip of a sharp knife into them. If they are then remove the pan from the heat, if not then allow to cook for 3-4 minutes longer.
Once ready, blitz the soup in a liquidiser until restively smooth. Best to do this in batches. Strain the soup through a fine sieve into a large clean bowl or pan. Use the back of a spoon to help work the soup through the sieve, leaving behind all the stringy pith from the pea pods.
You should end up with a bright green and velvety smooth soup.
Taste and add more seasoning if required.
Serves 3-4

After leaving a comment on Cherrapeno’s blog stating my dream kitchen gadget (an automatic ice cream maker – the kind you don’t need to pre-freeze) I was lucky enough to be visited by the Fairy Hobmother, in the form of Ian from Appliances Online

Unfortunately he wasn’t able to give me the ice cream maker (unsurprisingly considering they cost £200+) but I was gifted a £25 Amazon gift card to put towards my ice cream fund – yay!

To be in with a chance of a visit from the Fairy Hobmother yourself, simply leave a comment on this post, stating your dream kitchen gadget, before June 5th and who knows he may be visiting you too!

Daring Bakers May 2011: Chocolate Marquise with Coconut, Rum & Lime

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of Cook Craft Grown and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

I was incredibly excited when this month’s challenge was announced. It involved making a frozen chocolate dessert known as a marquise, accompanied by a meringue, served with a syrup and decorated with nuts. The method is quite complex, using a host of tricky and technically challenging techniques, something which always excites me – I love a challenge and the chance to learn some new kitchen skills!

Another aspect of the challenge that had me jumping up and down for joy was the fact is was naturally gluten free! Hurrah!

The recipe provided was for a peppery tequila chocolate dessert, but we were free to adapt the flavours to our own choosing. I decided to head down a more tropical route and ended up with Chocolate, Coconut, Rum & Lime!

All four flavours work together when combined in pairs, so I could see no reason why they wouldn’t all work together as a group. It turned out better than I’d hoped, the results were AMAZING! I know that sounds a bit big headed, but it was one of the best taste sensations I’ve had in a very long time. I’m longing to try and convert it into a cake combination.

Coconut was the first flavour to hit me when I took my first bite. As the frozen dessert melted in the mouth the coconut flavour mellowed out and the rich chocolate came swooping in, closely followed by a delicious combination of rum and citrusy lime. Wow. No one component overpowered the others with each one coming in layers, waiting patiently until the previous flavour had had its time in the spotlight. The rum was not too apparent, giving the dessert a ‘grown up’ sensation rather than being obviously alcoholic.

I think part of the success of the dessert was due to its incredibly smooth, soft creamy texture thanks to the large amounts of cream and egg yolks involved. It was like frozen custard in texture, even when straight out the freezer - just divine!

I also think the fact it was frozen helped keep all the flavours from jumping in at once. The chocolate and rum didn’t develop until the dessert had had time to melt a bit in the mouth, preserved in their frozen state. It softened quite quickly into an almost mousse like consistency.

The dessert was meant to be set in a large square pan and then cut into squares. I decided to also make some in a baton shaped flexible silicone ice cube mould, which I think made for a stylish presentation. I served the marquise on a blob of toasted meringue after drizzling the plate with some date syrup I found in a health food shop which lent another sweet tropical flavour. I then served it with some crush pistachios which added a little crunch and a lovely green colour which seemed fitting to tie in with the lime.

I’m not much of a meringue fan and don’t think it added much to the dish, so I probably wouldn’t make this component part again. Overall (as you can tell) my family and I adored this dessert. Yes it’s a little time consuming, but not overly difficult. The results are spectacular meaning it would be ideal for a special occasion or for when you are wanting to impress guests with your effortless domestic goddess persona.

Click to see the blogroll for other Daring Bakers take on chocolate marquise.

Chocolate Marquise with Coconut, Rum & Lime

Chocolate Base(this is half of the base of the chocolate marquise, not a component to be used on its own)
Ingredients
170g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
180ml double cream
30ml rum
30ml golden syrup
½ tsp coconut extract
15g cocoa powder
zest of 1 lime
15g unsalted butter, softened

Directions

Roughly chop the chocolate and place into a small mixing bowl.

In a double-boiler, warm the cream until it is hot to the touch, but is not boiling. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.

Allow it to sit for one minute before stirring gently to melt and combine.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

Set aside until cooled to room temperature while you make the other part of the marquise base. Do not refrigerate, as the base needs to be soft when added to the marquise mixture (below).

Chocolate Marquise

6 large egg yolks at room temperature
2 large eggs
75g caster sugar
40ml water
Chocolate base, barely warm (recipe above)
250ml double cream

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Whip on high speed until very thick and pale, about 10 - 15 minutes. (I don’t have one so used an ordinary bowl and a hand mixer!)

When the eggs are getting close to finishing, make a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring the syrup to a boil and then cook to softball stage (235F/115C).

With the mixer running on low speed, drizzle the sugar syrup into the fluffy eggs, trying to hit that magic spot between the mixing bowl and the whisk, not the whisk itself or the sides of the bowl.

When all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer back to high and whip until the bowl is cool to the touch. This will take at least 10 minutes.

In a separate mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Set aside.
When the egg mixture has cooled, add the previously prepared chocolate base to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Try to get it as consistent as possible without losing all of the air you've whipped into the eggs.

Fold a third of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then fold in the remaining cream.

Pour into the prepared pan or individual serving moulds and cover with clingfilm, pressing it down directly onto the mixture.

Freeze until very firm, at least 4 hours (preferably 6 – 8 hours).

Torched Meringue

(If you aren't planning on serving all of the marquise at once, you can make just half or even a third of the recipe)
6 large egg whites
200g caster sugar
Splash of apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Combine the egg whites, sugar and vinegar in a heatproof bowl. Whisk together lightly until all the ingredients have combined, but don’t try and make the egg foam up.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Use a spatula to stir the mixture continuously, dipping a finger in ever so often to feel for grains of sugar in the egg whites. As the liquid heats up, the sugar will slowly dissolve and the egg whites will thicken. This step is complete when you don't feel any more sugar crystals in the liquid and it is uniformly warm, nearly hot.

Remove the mixing bowl from the saucepan and pour into a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (I don’t have one so used an ordinary bowl and a hand mixer). Whisk until you reach soft peaks. In the last 10 seconds of mixing, add the vanilla to the meringue and mix thoroughly. Set aside until ready to use. Can be done 1-2hours in advance.

To Serve

Chopped pistachio nuts

Cocoa powder for dusting

Date syrup for drizzling

Assembly

Drizzle your serving plates with some of the date syrup. Arrange a blob of meringue onto the plate and toast lightly with a blowtorch to form a lightly golden top crust (optional).

Remove the marquise from the freezer, (do this 15 minutes before serving if cutting up a big one, or not at all if you’ve made individual servings). While it's still hard, remove it from the pan by pulling on the parchment 'handles' or by flipping it over onto another piece of parchment.

Cut it into cubes and dust them in cocoa powder. These will start to melt almost immediately, so don't do this step until all of your other plating components (meringue, syrup, nuts) are ready.

Arrange the dessert on the plate and scatter over the chopped nuts.

Serve immediately.