Meringues - a Momentous Moment -

I have done a few daring things which if I had thought about them for too long, I would possibly have never dared to undertake: holding one of the world largest python, arm wrestling hotel owners in weird and wonderful places to get a discount on a room but strangely enough when it comes to making meringues, I always recoil, feeling very sheepish.

When I interviewed the cookery writer Jennifer Joyce, she had baked meringues that very morning and she had nicely displayed them on the kitchen counter. They were so inviting that I thought of taking a bite while she was not looking but someone might have noticed.

I always think of meringues as the height of sophistication, you know the kind of desert the accomplished hostess or mum will produce to the delight of the party around the table. In other words, I always thought that this was not for me. Until the other day when I got very cross with life and decided that it was time to get rid of some of my timorousness. And as a consequence, I realised that meringues were dead easy and in my book, not much more complicated that stroking a well fed python.

For that kind of thing, the meringue not the snake, there is only one place to turn to and that is Delia's site. Once you master the technique, a whole world is yours, add Almonds, melted chocolate, orange water, top with berries or anything else you can think of.

My thanks to Anne Mortensen-photographer- for letting me use her meringue picture.