Triple raspberry meringue roulade: GBBO Week 4 - Dessert Week

Can't believe it is already week 4 of GBBO and dessert week. I often start to feel totally out of my depth by this point in the series but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself wanting to try making either a meringue roulade or a raspberry blancmange.

I opted for the roulade as I've made sponge roulade before and I've made meringue before so I figured it was the two combined and that hopefully it may turn out ok.

I've called my recipe "triple" raspberry roulade because it contains freeze dried raspberries in the meringue, fresh raspberries inside the roulade and raspberries within the berry coulis sauce I made to go with it.

For the meringue I used 4 large egg whites, 225g caster sugar and using a GBBO recipe book featuring the class of 2014 (series 5), I found a recipe for a meringue roulade which also had a teaspoon of lemon juice mixed in with the egg whites and a teaspoon of cornflour added to the caster sugar. I've seen recipes that suggest adding vinegar when making pavlova so I wanted to understand why some recipes suggest adding lemon juice, or vinegar or even cream of tartar. It is apparently because adding acid will help to stabilise the meringue - By delaying coagulation, it allows more time for air to get trapped and so produces a lighter meringue.

And the cornflour? Apparently that leads to a softer mallowy meringue.

It was a case of whisking the egg whites (and lemon juice) to stiff peaks and adding the sugar (with the cornflour). Then I carefully folded in 2 tbsp of freeze dried raspberries.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peak stage

I then greased and lined a baking tray with baking paper. I was going to use a 27 x 22cm tin but the meringue looked too thick so I scooped it all out and put it in another tin that I thought was bigger - an 18x30 cm tin but it turns out the surface area of that is smaller - doh - maths has never been my strong point.

The meringue rose and was thicker/deeper than I was hoping

So I ended up with slightly thicker meringue than I wanted. I baked it at 160C for 30 minutes. Then turned it out onto another sheet of baking paper that I had dusted with icing sugar.

I left it to cool for 5 minutes before peeling off the original piece of baking paper.

Then, being in a hurry, popped it in the fridge to cool completely. I realise this is NOT a good idea as meringue needs to cool gently and slowly to prevent cracking.

Whilst it was cooking and cooling I made a berry coulis. It always seems a shame to use fresh berries for things like this when fresh berries taste so nice fresh and whole so instead I used a pack of frozen summer berries.

I'm afraid I don't have proper measurements for this but 1 pack of frozen berries (around 330g) with a splash of boiling water on the hob to soften the berries a little. Then blitzed in a blender and sieved to remove the seeds from the raspberries and blackberries.  Finally a little icing sugar and raspberry liquor mixed in.

Once the meringue was cooled, I whisked some double cream to make it thicker and spread over the meringue. Then added chopped strawberries and raspberries on top. The meringue did crack but thankfully didn't fall apart.

Then rolled! I did use the technique of starting the roll with a slight cut in the meringue and used the baking paper to help me roll it as tightly as I could. Ideally it should have then been chilled again but I didn't have time.

It didn't have much of a swirl but there was definitely the attempt of a swirl.

The meringue had the crispy outer and mallowy middle - which I've since learnt is the ideal for meringue roulade - so that was good.

Rahul has rapidly emerged as my favourite baker in the tent. Just love how humble he is and his surprise at his own baking - he genuinely doesn't seem to realise just what a talented baker he is.

Linking up with Mummy Mishaps and Casa Costello for #GBBObloggers2018: