Chestnut ‘n’ Walnut Meringues
Alice Medrich’s award winning Flavor Flours has been on my bookshelf since January.
It makes inspiring reading if you’re avoiding wheat in your diet. Dedicated to baked goods, not one gram of wheat flour is used. Medrich’s book is about baking with flours made from alternate grains and nut meals.
I’ve made cakes, muffins and pastry and now meringues using a range of flours; rice, oat, sorghum, buckwheat and chestnut flour. The flavours have been outstanding, though a couple have lacked structure on the palate, something to tackle in the future.
This is the first time I’ve made meringue with any added flour, excluding pavlova of course, where it’s an absolute necessity for a soft marshmallowy centre. The result was classic meringue, sweet, dry, crisp and melt in the mouth. The buttery nut flavour of chestnut and walnut combined made these meringues very, very moreish.
I made my meringues man sized but after tasting the delicious flavour I envisioned dainty meringue sandwiches with coffee butter cream filling.
I’m sure there’ll be more pesky egg whites lurking in the fridge soon.
Chestnut and Walnut Meingues is published in Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich. I have rewritten the recipe in my own words.
Chestnut ’n’ Walnut Meringues
25g chestnut flour
75g walnut pieces, roughly chopped
150g castor sugar
3 large egg whites at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Preheat the oven to 120C.* Line two oven trays with baking paper.
In a small bowl combine the chestnut flour, walnuts and 65g of the sugar.
In a stand mixer whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar into soft peaks
Slowly add the remainder of the sugar to the egg whites in small quantites, whisking continuously into a stiff meringue.
Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl then thoroughly fold them through the meringue with a silicone spatula.
Drop dessertspoons full of meringue onto the oven trays allowing space for them to puff slightly.
Bake for 1 1/2 hours, turning the trays and swapping shelves occasionally to ensure even cooking.
The meringues will feel dry when cooked.
Turn off the oven heat and leave the meringues to cool in the oven.
Makes 24 large meringues.
* My meringues began colouring after just 20 minutes at 120C so I reduced the oven temperature to 100C. They cooked perfectly
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20 comments on “Chestnut ‘n’ Walnut Meringues”
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I was not into meringue until I was introduced to pavlova ad dacquoise. Thank you for introducing this meringue with chestnuts. Looks very good. Alice Medrich’s Flavor Flours sounds very interesting too.
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I always seems to have egg whites in the fridge, especially in winter, and meringues are always a welcome treat with coffee. Medrich’s recipe is tops
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Your meringues look fantastic, Sandra! I love the idea of the nutty variation and Stefano is a huge meringue fan. He has been asking to make them for months now. I’ll make his dream come true in the fall. Thank you!
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Thanks Francesca, I wish I could take the credit for this fab recipe, Alice Medrich is a baking genius!
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Why didn’t I see this? WP ‘unfollowed’ me from your feed in one of its glitchy moments. Love the look and sound of these, how wintery. I am certainly going to hunt down that book. I guess popping a bit of cornflour in pavlovas is a similar concept?
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Love your cuisine Sandra, the recipe looks wonderful! 🙂
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Aw thanks Linda, you’re too kind
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These look beautiful Sandra! Love the addition of nuts to meringues… makes them so much more interesting in their texture and flavour.
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I make meringues frequently to use up egg whites, many with nut added. The chestnut flour made a big difference to the crispness of the meringue.
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What an absolutely gorgeous recipe and photo Sandra! What a unique combination of flavors!
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Thanks Joanne…
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oooh Sandra those Chestnuts and Walnuts meringues sounds divine! A bit wintery for me since it’s almost Summer time in Europe but probably completely on season in Australia 😉 Which means lots of comfort cooking coming up!
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Thanks Raphaelle, winter has hit hard in Melbourne…
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I never thought to use flour in meringue. Seems that I have a use for what is left of my bag of chestnut flour. These look very, very scrummy.
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It’s a cracker meringue recipe, enjoy…
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yum! I have chestnut flour in the pantry and no idea what to make with it. Will give these a whirl. thanks x
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It’s a pleasure Mel! I also have a brownie recipe that uses chestnut flour on my blog
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looking for that one now too 🙂
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