The ingredients are basic - egg whites and caster sugar - but Fanny suggests some simple tricks to fancy it up, flavouring the meringues with cocoa powder and chocolate chips. I wonder what she'd reckon to me using a couple of thoroughly modern takes on these basics? Feeling brave, I reach for my Two Chicks Egg Whites and Little Pod Pure Chocolate Extract. Am I headed for trouble?
Fanny doesn't suggest any 'usual' additions like cornflour or vinegar, and as before it doesn't feel quite right to me to 'miss them out' but I am learning to trust Fanny completely... So I whisk up my egg whites to stiff peaks, add 2oz caster sugar and whisk for EXACTLY three minutes and then gently fold in another 6oz of caster sugar.
My oven is ready at 130 centigrade. Fanny says I should just 'blob' the mixture onto my baking trays, but her picture features wonderfully piped creations and shapes... Perhaps this is for those already fluent in Fanny's meringues, but I give it a go anyway. Rebel, eh? Blobbing just doesn't seem 'me'.
I add a few teaspoons of chocolate essence to the final third of the mixture, just to see, with a few chocolate chips and even decide to 'blob' some of them after all... Ok, not quite so rebellious I know... Fanny is watching and I mustn't misbehave...
Fanny tells me, as usual, that if I follow her instructions I simply cannot go wrong. So, after the allotted 55 minutes of drying ('meringues do NOT need actual cooking') I am again relieved to see some very light, very crisp perfect looking meringues. Just like Fanny's. Ahem.
