Kiwi Mess

This is a pudding entirely inspired and in honour of a dear friend who makes the most incredible pavlova, see photo below for evidence! The first time she presented us with a the pavlova which should have served twelve...we happily polished it all off!

The story behind my creation of this pudding is a sad one (in baking terms; I basically committed a crime!) ... 

One very slow day Ginny (the Pav Queen) & I were baking; I baked cupcakes, she baked mini meringue nests for her 'picnic pavlovas' ... after baking the meringues we left them in the oven to cool, with the intention that an hour later I would remember to take them out of the oven. 

However, I failed big time! ... 

An hour later I carelessly turned on the oven to pre-heat for my supper, obviously forgot the sodding meringues were in there and returned 10 minutes later to a smoky grey kitchen which in turn set the fire alarm ringing. When I say ringing I don't think that quite does the system justice ... a further 10 minutes later I still didn't have a clue how to turn off the little white box in our corridor that was causing hell on earth. Thankfully the fire alarm stopped thanks to my more knowledgeable house-mate. Sadly, there was no happy ending for the meringues ...

So, as an apology, at the next supper I made Gins a Kiwi Mess

Serves 8-10

Pre-heat oven to 150°C

Bake to perfection for 1 hour at 140°C

You will need the following:

Meringues

6 Large Egg Whites

350g Golden Caster Sugar

Filling

500g Fromage Frais

250g Marscapone

6 Kiwi Fruits

400g Strawberries (1 large tub)

Fruit Coulis

500g Frozen Summer Fruits

50ml Water

4Tbsp Golden Caster Sugar

Topping

100g White Chocolate, melted

100g Milk Chocolate, melted

Method:

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and have your sugar measured out, ready to go in a separate bowl

Using an electric whisk, whisk your egg whites 

Tip: start whisking on a low setting for the first minute, then up to full power there after. Periodically check the mix to ensure you do not over whisk your mixture. They should form soft peaks

NB: If you over whisk the egg whites they will collapse!!

Once they are forming soft peaks start to spoon in the sugar as you continue to whisk. Continue whisking until all the sugar is combined. 

How stiff is stiff?!
Test: Quite simply stand your electric whisk on its end, so the beaters are horizontal over the bowl ... the meringue mix should not move from the beaters. 

Lightly grease a baking sheet with oil or butter and place on a tray... on the baking sheet spoon the meringue mixture. To form the meringues spoon round blobs onto the baking tray with a maximum of eight per sheet

Place in oven and immediately turn the oven down to 140°C and bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour turn the oven off and leave them to cool down in the oven for a further hour, then remove.

 Whilst they are baking mix the marscapone and fromage frais

 Get your fruit chopped

To make the coulis simply place the berries, water and sugar in a pan over a high heat for 5 minutes then turn down to a low heat until the mixture thickens 

(this will take roughly 30-40 minutes)

To build the kiwi mess start by placing three meringues in the base of a large bowl

Dollop some of the creme fraiche mixture over the meringues

Then layer on the fruit

Repeat the first two steps of layering the meringues and fromage frais mixture ontop, then pour over half of the coulis

Add a layer of strawberries

Then kiwi fruit

Add the final layer of meringues

Spoon over the remaining coulis

 Just before serving the pudding, drizzle over the melted white and milk chocolate

 Enjoy ...