Strawberry and Chocolate Meringue

Your dessert looks fabulous and your children did such a good job talking about your dessert. Great job!

Ingredients

• 450ml double cream
• 2 tblsp icing sugar
• 350g fresh strawberries
• 175g caster sugar
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 3 egg whites (at room temperature)
• 150g dark chocolate

Instructions

First,Preheat your oven to 140°C (275°F) (Gas Mark 1).

Then,Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Draw 3 rectangles, 10 x 25cm on the baking paper. You can just fit two rectangles on the one baking tray.

Whisk the egg whites until the soft peak stage.

Add the caster sugar (I add mine all at once) and continue to whisk until the mixture is stiff and glossy.

Add the vinegar and cornflour and whisk for a couple more minutes. The mixture should be able to hold its shape if the bowl is turned upside down.

Prepare an icing bag with a large star nozzle and fill with the meringue mixture.

Using your template, pipe (10cm) lines until you have filled all three rectangles.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour turn the oven off and leave the meringues to cool in the oven.

When your meringues are cool, melt the chocolate and spread it over 2 of the meringue layers making sure you go right to the edge.

Place in the fridge for about 10 minutes to harden.

Assemble just before serving by whipping the double cream with some icing sugar and chopping your strawberries (leave about 8 whole ones for decoration).

Place one chocolate meringue on your serving dish and spread with one third of the cream and top with half the chopped strawberries.

Place the second chocolate meringue on top and spread with another third of the cream and the remaining chopped strawberries.

Place the plain meringue layer on top and spread with the remaining cream.

Arrange the whole strawberries on top and drizzle over any remaining chocolate.Enjoy your meal !