Meringue nests with strawberries

With very few ingredients we can make an exceptional dessert. These meringues with roasted strawberry sauce are a recipe as pretty as they are sweet and delicious. I think we can agree that it could be the perfect recipe for your Valentine's Day, or to say "I want to make you happy", just by bringing one of these meringue nests to our loved ones.

Making meringues is very easy, you just need a powerful mixer and to let the oven cook them at a low temperature for a long time. I'll leave you some tips for making meringues in the recipe, I hope they are useful.

As for the strawberries, you can always serve them with natural strawberries, but I highly encourage you to make roasted strawberries: their aroma intensifies and both in the meringues and when making the sauce, I think you will notice a big difference if you cook them a little on the fire first.

What do you say? Do you dare to surprise your Valentine with this recipe?

Ingredients

For the meringue:

150 g white sugar
3 egg whites
1 tbsp corn flour (cornstarch type)
1 pinch of salt
A few drops of lemon juice
A teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

For the strawberry sauce and presentation

1 glass of Grand Marnier
2 tbsp cooking cream
300 gr of strawberries

Preparation

How to make the meringue nests:

Preheat the oven to 110°C.
Using an electric whisk or a KitchenAid with the whisk attachment, start beating the egg whites. When they begin to foam, gradually add the sugar. Once this has been added, and to give it consistency, add the drops of lemon, the pinch of salt and the tablespoon of corn flour (*see notes).
On a baking tray , place baking paper (not necessary if it is already a non-stick tray), and with the help of a couple of spoons or with the De Buyer gun, arrange the meringue obtained forming the meringue nests. Leave the center a little flatter if you want to arrange the strawberries on top later, or make them in a pyramid shape if you just want to drizzle them with strawberry sauce.
Place them in the oven and bake at a low temperature of between 110 and 120 ºC for two hours. When they are dry, turn off the oven and let them cool slowly, leaving them in the oven but with the door open (this way the meringues won't fall).

How to make the strawberry sauce and assemble the nests:

The nests will be delicious if you use roasted strawberries instead of fresh strawberries. So, while the meringues are being made, you can put an additional tray with some strawberries cut into quarters so they can be baked, or you can make them in the Dupla frying pan on the heat for a few minutes (you will see that thanks to the oven effect of the pan, the strawberries will be cooked in just a few minutes).
For the strawberry sauce , simply blend the strawberries (if they've been roasted, all the better, as their aroma will be more intense, and remember to save some of them for the meringue presentation) with the help of a blender until you get a strawberry puree. Add the cream and Grand Marnier, and set aside for an hour in the fridge.
When presenting the dessert, place a nest of strawberries with some roasted strawberries on top (the strawberries should already have rested, so as not to soak the meringue), and pour a little strawberry sauce on top.

Grades

*Corn flour, as well as salt, help to obtain a greater consistency in the meringue, but if you want you can leave them out.
If you want the meringue to have a vanilla flavour, add the vanilla extract while you are whipping the egg whites, but it is completely optional in the recipe. Without it, you get a meringue with the classic meringue flavour.
When serving, you can arrange the strawberries but serve the sauce in a separate bowl. This way, you ensure that the meringue keeps its shape and your guests will love pouring the tempting sauce themselves.
Meringues are also delicious served with cherries. You can also serve them with roasted strawberries as we said in the recipe, but make the sauce with cherries. These flavors go wonderfully together.