Irish coffee meringue gâteau recipe
Irish coffee, in a dessert? We can't think of a better, or more indulgent, grand finale to round off Christmas dinner.
This deliciously simple meringue gâteau recipe was created by JR Ryall, head chef at fine dining restaurant and hotel Ballymaloe House in County Cork, Ireland.
He says: "This gâteau plays on the flavours of Irish coffee. The cream is flavoured with Irish whiskey and the meringue is flavoured with coffee. I like to assemble this gâteau a few hours before I plan to serve it, to give the boozy cream a chance to slightly soften the meringue.
"A fun variation of this recipe is to pipe the coffee meringue into small ‘kisses’, which when baked can be sandwiched together with the whiskey cream to make whimsical baby meringues."
Ingredients
For the meringue- 3 tsp instant coffee powder (not granules)
- 170 g plus 2tsp icing (confectioners') sugar
- 3 large (US extra-large) egg whites
- 3 tbsp Irish whiskey
- 600 ml whipped cream
- 1 sprinkle of icing (confectioners') sugar
- 1 sprinkle of unsweetened cocoa powder
Details
- Cuisine: Irish/French
- Recipe Type: Dessert
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 30 mins
- Cooking Time: 60 mins
- Serves: 8
Step-by-step
To make the meringue
- Preheat the oven to 130°C/110°C fan/265°F/gas mark 1. Cover a large baking sheet with baking paper and use a pencil to draw 3 18cm (7in) diameter circles on the paper. Flip the paper over so the pencil is on the underside.
- Sift the instant coffee powder and 2tsp of icing (confectioners') sugar together and set aside.
- Place the egg whites and 170g (6oz/0.75 cup) of icing sugar into the spotlessly clean bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Begin whisking at medium speed. After about 1 minute, increase the speed to full and whisk until the mixture forms stiff peaks, about 10 minutes.
- Gently fold the coffee and sugar mixture into the stiff meringue, let it sit for about 30 seconds and fold once more. In this time the coffee powder will begin to dissolve into the meringue.
- Transfer some of the mixture to a piping (pastry) bag and pipe twelve small meringue kisses on the lined baking sheet. Evenly spread the remaining meringue in three thin disks, using the pencil circles as a guide. Bake for about 1 hour until crisp and set. When the meringue is cooked it will lift easily away from the baking paper. Allow to cool completely.
To assemble and decorate
- In a bowl, fold the whiskey into the whipped cream.
- Put one of the meringue discs on a serving plate. Spread or pipe just less than half of the whiskey cream over the meringue, taking care to keep the edges neat. Put the second circle of meringue on top and cover with a similar amount of cream as before. Place the third meringue circle on top and press down lightly.
- Decorate the top with the remaining whiskey cream, the coffee meringue kisses and a light dusting of icing sugar and cocoa powder.
Recipe extracted from Ballymaloe Desserts: Iconic Recipes & Stories from Ireland by JR Ryall (Phaidon, £39.95). Photography by Cliodha Prendergrast.
For your chance to win a copy of Ballymaloe Desserts, enter the competition on our Facebook page.
You might also like:
Chocolate brownie meringue gâteau