Blueberry Meringues & A New Look
Wait. Don’t hit that back button! You’re in the right place. This is indeed the new, face-lifted, trying-to-make-my-neighbors-jealous-of-my-new-kitchen remodeled, designed just for this blog from the ground up, new look of Chasing Delicious. I figured since I’ve hit the year and a half mark it was time to finally design a look I would be happy with, proud of even, and once I could grow and mature into.
If you’ll look to your left. No, not that far, I mean to the left of your screen. A little more. There ya go. There is the new menu for Chasing Delicious. You should notice the typical home, about, email me (feel free to drop me a line anytime!) and such but you may notice a few new things. There is now a clean recipe archive for Chasing Delicious so feel free to browse through that if you’re ever hungry and bored. My favorite two new pages are the encyclopedia and conversions page though.
Conversions takes care of not only converting temperature and some basic measurements from imperial to metric (for those of you silly europeans/rest of the world–jk I’m aware of how silly it is for one country to use a type of measurement) but it also has a handy chart of volume equivalents of commonly used products measured by weight. Since I bake by weight, this will come in handy for those of you measuring recipes by volume. By the way. Do you know what temperature °C and °F meet up at? I’ll give you a hint. It’s cold!
The Encyclopedia page is home to about 90 terms I refer to a lot in this blog. Some are basic definitions and some are tips and tricks for making life easier, like using a plastic freezer bag as a substitute for a pastry bag. I also outline the nine basic mixing methods used in baking and other basics including the difference between cake, bread and all purpose flour. If you ever have a question about a term listed or not listed in my encyclopedia please feel free to ask! I am by far no professional, but a big part of my chase has been learning the science behind cooking and baking. I want to pass on all the information I learn to you too, so I will be updating the encyclopedia as I go.
There are also cookbooks and blogs outlining just a few of my favorite of both. Please feel free to take a look around. I hope you enjoy the new look!
Ok enough about Chasing Delicious. On to these little blueberry meringues. Meringues are both a fairly simple recipe to make and a fun, tasty little treat. It’s pretty much like eating crispy cotton candy cookies, yeah delicious!
To make meringues all you need is egg whites, sugar, a tiny–and i mean tiny–amount of lemon juice and in this recipe some pureed blueberries. You whip the egg whites, first bringing them to a foam. Then, you slowly incorporate the sugar and whip the mixture to stiff peaks. Stiff peaks mean the egg white mixture should hold its shape. At the very last minute you whip in some blueberry puree. Also, be careful not to overwhip the egg whites. As soon as they form stiff peaks stop whipping. If the eggs look broken up then you have whipped too much.
Scoop the mixture into a pastry bag (remember my tip above?) and pipe the cookies into any desired shape you like. Quick tangent. I am distressed to share with you that in the last week I have lost three of my favorite piping tips. And by lost I mean my garbage disposal ate them. Sad face.
Anytime you work with whipped egg whites you must work carefully. You should pipe and bake the product right away. The more time the egg whites sit, the more likely they are to loose air and deflate. Of course don’t panic trying to race through this process–I had enough time to get a few shots in before I started piping). This recipe makes a crazy amount of meringues (about 100) so feel free to cut the recipe in half. I forgot how much egg whites expand when you whip them. Whoops. Also the taste of blueberrys is very subtle. I would add more blueberries but there is a chance you could run into the cookies not being able to hold their shape.
Blueberry Meringues
Ingredients
1 cup (about 8) egg whites
1 pound (2 1/4 cup) sugar
1 or 2 drops lemon juice
1/4 cup pureed blueberriesInstructions
1. preheat an oven to 210°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.Whip the eggs and lemon juice at high speed until they begin to look foamy.
3. Continue whipping the eggs and add the sugar slowly. Whip at high speed until the eggs come to soft peaks. Add the pureed blueberries and continue whipping until the egg whites come to stiff peaks. Be careful not to overwhip!
4. Scoop the mixture into a piping bag, careful not to deflate the mixture. Pipe the mixture onto the lined baking sheets.
5. Bake for 3 to 4 hours until they are completely dry. I baked mine just over 3 hours.
Be sure to store them in an airtight container as moisture is not their friend.
Enjoy!
I love the new look so much better! Still tweeking my site as it’s brand new :-)
Russell, hun. I’m not sure Celcius and Farenheit will ever actually meet up. Unless my math is wrong the only time C and F will equal is if you use limits. The limit of Temperature in Celcius as Temperature in Farenhiet approaches infinity is infinity. So they only ever really equal eachother at infinity (both positive and negative). Just sayin. :P <3
Haha. The correct answer is actually -40! I win.
PS – I love the new look! lol
Love the new look. Gorgeous. Congratulations! And love these simple meringue recipe, too. I wonder though why the pureed blueberries didn’t bleed into the egg whites.
My only guess here is maybe I didn’t use enough for how much egg whites I had. They did turn out a very, very pale blue. I may try more blueberry puree next time.
Your site is *gorgeous* as are those meringues! I can’t wait to see more and more recipes posted on this gorgeous new page! :)
I love your new look!
Love the new look! The merangues look fabulous!
Wow what a gorgeous post, these look so delicious! :)
These are absolutely beautiful & with blueberries!! I love this idea.Yum!
Congratulations on the site remodel…it looks fantastic, but no more so than the gorgeous photography and these tasty looking meringues! Thank you for sharing the recipe and happy baking.
I really like the new design. Looks really clean if you know what I mean. The blueberry meringues look awesome too. Great photos as usual.
I love how your pictures really pop with the new look of your site! I love your Blueberry Meringues – they look amazing!
Your new design is clean and very, very slick. And thanks for the meringue recipe…just in time for blueberry season here! Theresa
New design is fabulous! Clean, modern, easy to navigate…just the way a kitchen remodel should be. :) Your photographs are so good they practically leap off the page into my mouth (and onto my hips).
Haha thank you very much for the kind words! If only I can give myself a real kitchen remodel now.
Love the simple new design. But I REALLY love the meringues, with blueberries, delish!
Russell, I think your new look is amazing! It’s minimalistic, elegant and very helpful with the conversion and encyclopedia tabs. As for these meringues, you’ve inspired me to try making them using different fruit purees. Unfortunately, your photos suck…
(LOL I’m KIDDING! They are fab.u.lous!)
Hahaha! I think this is the first comment that has ever made me laugh out loud. Thank you very much for the kind words–even though you almost tricked me there. I bet different varieties will be great. Let me know if you try other flavors!
Nice site! Great recipe!
These meringues sound awesome and I love the new design. Very clean and crisp, awesome!
I really like the new design. Nice and clean–the photos really pop! I also really like that the full post comes up in Google reader and not just a snip-it.
Love the new look, Russell! Great recipe too. Anything with blueberries is yummy :)
These meringues look fabulously delicious. I’m new to your site and loving it.
Russell-
Your food, photos, and layout are just beautiful. Thank you for introducing me to your site!! Kindest Regards, Nicole
Thank you very much for the kind words! And I’m glad you stopped by : )
You definitely got my attention with these Blueberry Meringues! Nice.
I’ve never made meringues, but it’s high on my list of “things I’d like to try one day soon.” I love the idea of blueberry meringues- it’s like a special way to grasp on to summer.
You should definitely give them a try. They are surprisingly easy. In fact this was my first time making them.
I love your blog’s new look!! Very clean and appealing. It’s reminding me that I need to finished up putting mine together :)
Those meringues look delicious, I haven’t made meringues in such a long time but now I really want to. So pretty and tasty (always a good combo)
Thank you very much. Sometimes it can feel like these things are never finished–just like a recipe you keep going back to, to improve and perfect. At least that’s how I feel.
Thank you. They are tasty and so surprisingly light with a fun texture. I will definitely be trying some other flavors soon.
Did things change around here? it’s gorgeous!!
Your photography is stunning! I love meringues, and am terrified to try making them at home!! I wish I could grab one of the page :)
Haha thank you very much! Your kind words mean so much!
I just made roasted marshmallow ice cream and have egg whites sitting in my refrigerator. Perfect timing…
nice new design clean, elegant and informative
http://fivefinickyeaters.blogspot.com/
lovely photos!
Great stuff, just Stumbled it
Wowza!! You are brilliant! I cannot even imagine how tasty those are. I can just see a Top 9 coming out of this one. This is so great…
These are just fabulous! Perfect and delectable~~~
I love the new look :)
These meringues look beautiful! I’ve never tried making these, but def need to try. Nice post!
Your new site looks awesome. Simple. Clean. Great writing. And delicious photos. Look forward to seeing even more to come.
Looks so tempting!
even with the blueberry the meringues still looks amazing!
I wish I have a blueberry right now!
Congratz for the top 9 On Foodbuzz Russell! ;)
So delicious! My two favorite things combined – blueberries and meringue! Congratulations on Top 9!
Love your blog new layout! Your meringue looks absolutely gorgeous and delicious!
I weight my ingredients and then convert them to volume for my blog. I’m one of those silly Europeans making my way through the American measuring chats :))
I think F and C meet somewhere around -30 or -40 but I may be wrong.
The meringues look so cute. Love the blueberry addition.
Thanks for sharing
Haha. I have a feeling y’all call us silly Americans. And you’re right! It’s -40! I wish I had a prize to give you. You’re the first to guess it.
Thanks for stopping by : )
Beautiful new site! I love the clean look. And I LOVE those meringues. They have always seemed so intimidating to me but you make them seem simple and accessible to us novice cooks.
Russell…congrats on your new look! I like it…very clean and savvy! And these meringues are gorgeous. You have great piping skills…they look very professional. I’ve never added anything into my meringues before because I’m always afraid of screwing them up! But now you’ve got me thinking…. : )
Thank you very much! And I don’t know if I’d call my piping skills great–I may have picked the ten best out of my bunch. I do practice a lot though seeing as I’m constantly baking.
You should definitely try some different flavors though. I’m surprised how forgiving the meringues where.
Meringues are so pretty, and I love the idea of adding flavor with a fruit puree. They look great!
the new look so simple and straight forward, i love it!
Congrats on your facelift! I hope you enjoy your new self.
The cookies look great. I hate meringues but love the feeling of whipping egg whites into submission.
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