sweet'n'sour

I wanted to give you the recipe of a delicious dessert, meringues with lemon foam. It’s definitely one of my favorite desserts because the sourness of the fluffy, yet highly aromatic lemon foam goes perfectly with the sweet meringues. From the looks of it you might assume that cooking this dessert would be a great effort but fortunately it’s quite easy to cook.

For 4 portions you need:

lemon foam: 1 tbsp. lemon rind, 100ml lemon juice, 80g sugar, 4 sheets gelatin, 300ml buttermilk

meringue: 1 tsp. butter, 2 egg whites, 80g sugar, salt

garnish: 1 tsp. lemon rind, raspberries

Whisk the lemon rind, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and let it simmer over low heat for 2 minutes. Stir every once in a while.

Remove the saucepan from heat. Add the gelatin, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, to the mixture and stir until the gelatin has dissolved.

Add the buttermilk, stirring until smooth.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into the isi Whip bottle. Screw the head firmly onto the bottle. Insert a cream charger and screw onto the head to release the gas into the Whipper. Refrigerate until chilled and set, for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 100°C fan-forced. Grease a sheet of baking parchment and place it on a baking sheet. In a clean, dry bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. 

Gradually add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar dissolves and foam is stiff, thick and glossy.

Spoon meringue onto the prepared tray, using serving spoons. Bake for 1 hour until meringue is just firm to the touch but not browned. Turn off oven. Leave the meringues in the oven, with the door ajar, for 1 hour to cool completely.

Cut off the top of the meringues and crumble it to pieces. Divide the meringues among serving plates. Take the isi Whip bottle and shake it vigorously. Hold the bottle with the tip pointed straight down and press the lever to dispense the foam onto the meringues. 

Sprinkle the meringue crumbs on the foam and garnish with lemon rinds and raspberries.

enjoy ;-)

Who am I?

Hey, guys!

My name is Thomas. As of now a few of you may know me, I guess most of you don’t, but I bet that at least you’ve noticed me at the Department of Translation since I usually stick out a mile, literally. I grew up in a quite remote part of Hitzendorf, about 20 minutes from Graz and still live there with my parents and my sister. That means I have to commute between home and university but I don’t mind because I can’t imagine living in a city for longer than a couple of months. The landscape, the animals, my pets, the quiet, not for all in the world would I swap living on a farm, with living in a city.

Despite my appearance I’m rather introverted and not very talkative. In case you end up having small talk with me and wonder why I’m so quiet, don’t worry that I’m not interested, it’s just that I’m more of a listener than a talker.

For this reason I’m not going tell you much but the most interesting and outstanding passion of mine - patisserie. Since I was a child I’ve always helped my mom with the cooking and I especially loved baking. Over the last few years however I tried to hone my skills even more and be keen to experiment with new ingredients and new flavors. Due to the extravaganza of the desserts I usually spend hours in the kitchen. My motto is “no risk, no reward” so the outcome is not necessarily delicate but at least I want it to look as good as in the magazines. As far as presentation is concerned I’m pretty much a perfectionist. Seeing photos of my desserts one could easily think that I cook in a careful, systematic way, yet no one knows that the moment I enter the kitchen there is utter chaos.

lemon meringue tart

basil panna cotta with marinated strawberries

iced honey blueberry charlotte

papaya parfait with caramelized coconut-popcorn

Now that I’ve whetted your appetite, it’s time to say goodbye. Have a nice evening ;-)