Tiramisu Meringue Roulade

If you are looking for a chilled dessert, without fruit, as my other half sternly avoided (and which boggles the mind - apple tart and rhubarb crumble are fine but fresh fruit's a no-no!), then this may well be the right choice for you. It is also rather delicious, fruit issue aside. The meringue can be prepared in advance and left until you are ready to add the final touches, which takes virtually minutes; making it perfect for a dinner party.

The idea came about one evening when my sister (another food fanatic – www.twitter.com/muirno17), my OH and I, decided we wanted to try some kind of different dessert. We had a hankering for something quite light and so the idea of meringue came up. However, it had to be a meringue without any fruit! An aunt of mine makes a berry meringue roulade and I quite like the soft gooey-ness of its texture. Another aunt makes a pavlova, which she tops with Bailey’s flavoured cream and Cadbury’s Flake chocolate bar, instead of fresh fruit. So, basically we arrived at a coffee/chocolate style meringue roulade,  and Tiramisu Meringue Roulade seemed a very fitting title! I hope you enjoy preparing and baking it and, most importantly, gobbling up a few generous slices!

This recipe serves six good sized portions of roulade.

Ingredients and other necessary “accoutrements”:

The meringue –

• 4 egg whites (save your yolks for breakie, e.g. rich scrambled eggs or omelette)

• 225g caster sugar

• 1 tbsp. of “Irel” or “Camp” coffee essence

The topping –

• 300ml fresh cream, whipped with 5 – 6 tbsp. of Irish cream liqueur mixed through (I used “Bailey’s”)

• 3 Cadbury’s Flake bars (leave in the fridge until required)

The extras –

• Baking/Greaseproof paper
• A baking tray (approx. 32cmx22cm)
• A wire rack
• A hand whisk or food processor to save the arms
• Also, a plastic spatula is very handy

Method:

1.       Cover the baking tray in baking paper, making sure that there is a little extra around each side.

2.       Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C/300 degrees F/gas mark 2.

3.       Whip the four egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until opaque in colour and full of volume.

4.       Add the sugar bit by bit, continuing to whip the mixture very well. When you have arrived at stiff peaks of mixture that do not fall back into the bowl, you’re good to go.

5.       Finally, stir through the coffee essence.

6.       Use the spatula or a large plastic serving spoon to place the entire mixture onto the baking tray, evening it out to ensure that it spreads out well over the tray.

7.       Place the tray into the oven and cook for 30 minutes. After this time, turn off the oven and leave the meringue inside the oven to sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

8.      Remove the tray from the oven and lift the meringue up by holding the excess parts of baking paper. In a quick motion turn the meringue over upside down onto a wire rack.

9.       Spread the boozy cream over the meringue. You will be spreading it onto what was the bottom part of the meringue.

10.   Leaving the Flake bars unopened; break them up using a rolling pin or by crushing them with your fingers. You should aim to end up with some crumb pieces and some more chunky pieces. Then open the wrappers and allow the chocolate to fall evenly on top of the Bailey’s cream across the entire meringue.

11.    Now for the “tricky” bit! Using the baking paper, lift and turn the meringue gently and smoothly in on top of itself, rolling as you go. It may seem that the meringue is breaking but bear with it. The top part will have a naturally broken kind of appearance. You can remove any excess cream that escapes out the sides if you choose, I mean every cook is obliged to taste while preparing food!

12.    Store the roulade in the fridge of course and serve and eat ASAP. Hard task I know! I sometimes like to crunch up some extra Flake chocolate to scatter on top of a slice of the roulade for serving. Enjoy!