Easy Meringues

If you are looking for an easy meringue recipe that is light, crisp on the outside, marshmallowy in the middle and topped with a cloud of lightly whipped cream, fresh berries and a homemade coulis? This recipe is for you. 

These two ingredient homemade meringues are very easy to make, and the balance of flavours is wonderful with the tangy berry coulis. It’s a classic recipe that is perfect for the warmer months, or because you want something light for dessert. 

Notes from The Patisserie 

This recipe is something that most people know already, but after posting a video of making this dessert to my social media, I had hundreds of people asking for the recipe. 

It’s a recipe with simple ingredients that you likely already have at home or you can easily buy, and everything is homemade which makes it even better. It’s the perfect recipe for entertaining, for a lighter summer dessert, and you can customise it really easily with whatever fruit you like. 

For example, I love using fresh locally grown fruit when it’s in season, but you can adapt it for throughout the year. Think sliced peaches, or mango for a different summery vibe, or a stewed apples with cinnamon in the autumn – even a drizzle of chocolate to level it up. 

Making a meringue?

Meringues do not have to be complicated. They may look a little daunting, but the most basic of meringues is only TWO ingredients… egg whites, and sugar. 

Yes, sometimes I jazz up my meringues to add a little extra for texture, or base, such as vinegar, cornflour and a flavour, but on this occasion I purposely went for a super basic meringue to make this recipe as easy as possible 

Similar in style to me homemade Eton mess meringue, but as a larger more less effort base of meringue, this recipe is designed to just dollop and go. I was having a bit of a struggle with confidence recently, and I had a craving for meringue, cream and fruit – so made it. 

Ingredient notes and tips 

For the meringue

As mentioned above, it’s only two ingredients 

• Egg whites – I always use fresh egg whites, from medium eggs typically. I prefer fresh to cartoned, as sometimes I do find the cartoned ones can not work for meringue. 
• Sugar – I use basic white caster sugar as it’s something that is always in my cupboard and easy to buy. 

For the cream

• Cream – I use double cream as I nearly always have it in the fridge, but you can use whipping cream very easily. I use fresh cream, and not a preserved cream for best results 
• Sugar – I use a little icing sugar as I find it stabilises the cream, it whips quicker and it has a nice level of sweetness 
• Vanilla – I prefer to use vanilla bean paste because I love the flecks of vanilla throughout, but it’s totally optional, or swappable to a regular vanilla extract (never use essence) or a different flavour entirely 

For the fruit and coulis

As I was genuinely making this recipe on quite a whim, I ended up picking some blackberries from the back of my garden, and a few strawberries, and threw a little fruit coulis together for a delicious drizzle. 

• Berries – realistically, you can you any berry you want. I used the blackberries, but these are interchangeable for strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries etc. Or, you can do a mix. I also decorate and serve with some fresh berries. 
• Sugar – I use a little caster sugar to thicken the coulis and make it a delicious sauce. 

Making a success of a simple dessert 

The nasty egg yolk – As simple as it is in my mind to make this sort of dessert, I have done it many times. I find it best to separate each egg white into a separate bowl, because you really need to make sure that there is NO egg yolk there, and you don’t want to contaminate them all of your egg whites on the last egg break. 

Cleaning a bowl – You always want to make sure that your bowl and whisk are super clean, because even though a meringue is only two ingredients, it is fickle if there is grease or dirt in the bowl too. I like to use a glass bowl so that I can make sure all the egg whites at the bottom of the bowl are whipped up as well before adding the sugar 

When do I add the sugar – When the egg whites are at stiff peaks, I add my sugar 1tsp at a time. Some people do more, but I have always done 1tsp to make sure it incorporates correctly and doesn’t get overloaded. 

Making a fruit coulis – If you haven’t made coulis before, it really is so simple. Add the fruit and sugar to a pan, and heat on a medium heat until it’s bubbled together. I mash the fruit with my fork (I don’t sieve it, I like the texture – but you can). Simmer for a few minutes for it to mix together well and cool. 

The cream used in this recipe is basically a Chantilly cream, which means it consists of cream, sugar and vanilla. I lightly whip the cream to soft peaks because it’s very easy to over whip. If you leave the cream to sit for a while, it will continue to thicken, so slightly softer is best. 

FAQs

Related recipes

As this easy meringue recipe is basically a mini pavlova recipe, it can suit many occasions. However, I have some delicious other meringue based recipes that you may also adore:

• Spring Pavlova – A delicious large version of this recipe, that is topped with delicious fruits. A large show stopper meringue dessert
• Homemade Eton mess – How to make the basic delicious classic that we all know and love
• Eton mess cheesecake – I love marrying two different desserts together, and my Eton mess cheesecake is one of the best.
• Eton mess cake – A cake version of this easy meringue recipe – soft sweet layers of heaven