Most of my cooking is simply about making something good to eat at the end of a working day: food you put in the centre of the table for everyone to dive in and joyously help themselves. But, occasionally, I like to cook purely for fun, too: a family-style cake, a tray of warm biscuits or some such little fancy. So earlier this week I made two sweet and pretty treats – a meringue folded through with toasted hazelnuts and fruit and a tray of soft almond biscuits.
The meringue was cooked until crisp, then crushed and stirred into soft, barely whipped cream, before being sharpened with poached rhubarb – a sort of Eton mess for a spring day. The biscuits were flavoured with ground almonds and dusted with sugar made from crystallised rose petals. This is the sort of cooking I do all too rarely – asweet gesture for a special occasion.
Rhubarb and hazelnut mess
You can make a quick version of this with bought meringues and whipped cream, folded through with the poached rhubarb. But this version is more fun. Don't overcook the meringue. Ideally it should be crisp outside but soft and chewy within.
Serves 4-6
For the meringues:
hazelnuts 100g, shelled
caster sugar 150g
egg whites 3
cornflour 1 heaped tbsp
espresso 2 tbsp, hot
For the rhubarb:
rhubarb 350g
caster sugar 2 heaped tbsp
water 4 tbsp
double cream 300ml
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Put the hazelnuts in a dry, shallow pan and toast them over a moderate heat until their skins darken. Tip the nuts on to a clean tea cloth and rub them firmly. The skins, or at least most of them, will flake off. Remove as much of the skins as possible, then toast once again, briefly, until they are walnut coloured. Tip the nuts into a food processor and process to coarse crumbs. Set aside.
Make the meringues. Scatter the sugar over a baking sheet, put it in the oven and leave for 10 minutes or so, until warm. Whip the egg whites with an electric beater until firm and fluffy, then fold in the warm sugar. Keep beating with the electric beater for a good five minutes, until the meringue is shiny.
Add the chopped hazelnuts, the cornflour and the espresso and fold in, firmly but slowly. Place large, heaped mounds of the mixture on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment, leaving room for the meringues to spread and puff. Put it in the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 120C/gas mark ½. Bake for about an hour, turning down the heat further if they are browning too much – you want them to be a pale honey colour. When the meringues are crisp on top, let them cool. The ideal is for them to remain fudgy inside.
Trim the rhubarb and cut into thick, short pieces about the size of a wine cork. Pack them into a baking dish and sprinkle with the sugar and water. Bake for about 25 minutes at 180C/gas mark 4, until soft but still holding its shape. Remove and set aside.
Whip the cream until it will just about keep its shape – it shouldn't be so thick that it will stand in peaks. Crush the meringues into a large serving bowl. Spoon in the whipped cream and the rhubarb, crushing the fruit a little as you go. Trickle over some of the rhubarb's cooking juices and serve.
Almond shortbreads
Little almond cookies, best eaten slightly warm, fresh from the oven.
Makes 16
For the almond filling:
almonds 100g, ground
icing sugar 50g
caster sugar 50g
egg 1
For the shortbread:
butter 200g
icing sugar 90g
vanilla extract
almonds 140g, ground
plain flour 140g
lemon zest of 1, finely grated
To decorate:
crystallised rose petals 3, large
caster sugar 2 tbsp
For the almond filling put the ground almonds in a mixing bowl, add the icing and caster sugars. Beat the egg lightly with a fork to mix the white and yolk then stir or beat into the almonds and sugar. When the mixture is soft and thick, set aside and make the shortbread.
For the shortbread, put the butter, cut into small pieces, into the bowl of a food mixer. Add the sugar and then cream with a flat beater attachment to a soft, pale fluff. Mix in a few drops of vanilla extract, then add the ground almonds and plain flour. Grate the lemon zest finely into the mixture then gently stir in.
Set the oven at 160C/gas mark 3 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Divide the almond filling into 16 and roll each piece into a ball. Divide the shortbread into 16, flatten a piece in the palm of your hand then place a ball of almond paste in the centre. Pull the shortbread around the almond paste and squeeze to seal. Roll into a ball. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
Place the balls, generously spaced to allow them to spread, on the lined baking sheet. Press the top of each ball down with a fork then bake for 20-25 minutes until the biscuits are pale and still soft. Remove to a cooling rack with a palette knife. Leave for 10-15 minutes to set.
Put the rose petals and sugar in a food processor and blitz to a coarse powder. Scatter over the warm biscuits. The biscuits are best eaten soft and warm on the day of baking.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk. Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater
