Zesty Nutty Meringue Cookies

With a crisp outside layer, chewy centre and hidden tasty morsels scattered throughout, these little meringue cookies have flavours reminiscent of a fancy nougat or an Italian panettone. Forgive the uninspiring name, but it's nothing if not accurate! These cookies are dairy and gluten free (as long as you check the icing sugar) and the added fruits and nuts can easily be altered to make them your own.

This has a brown sugar Swiss meringue base. The eggs are tempered before whipping so that they are less prone to splitting when you introduce the other ingredients later on. Tempering the eggs essentially brings them to a temperature of at least 72 degrees Celcius, which stabilises the egg white while keeping it in a liquid state. This is also a food-safe temperature, so meringue made from the heated egg white and sugar mixture can be eaten without being cooked again. Without this stage, the zest and nuts could cause the meringue to go grainy or runny and lead to an undesirable cookie texture.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED

Sugar Thermometer/ Temperature Probe

Saucepan

Large Mixing Bowl

Electric Whisk

Sieve

Spatula

Spoons

INGREDIENTS

2 Large Egg Whites

60g Brown Sugar

30g Icing Sugar

10g Citrus Zest of your choice (I used equal quantities of orange, lemon and grapefruit)

50g Ground Almonds

35g Dried Cranberries

35g Flaked Almonds

1) Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/ 170°C and toast the almond flakes until crisp and golden. Leave them to the side to cool. Roughly chop the cranberries and put them in a small bowl for later. Preheat the oven to gas mark 1/ 140°C.

2) Put the egg whites and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and set it over a saucepan with 1-2cm water in it to make a bain-marie. Gently stir the mixture while it slowly warms to at least 72°C. Make sure you keep it moving or the egg white will cook into a white lump rather than temper into a sticky, creamy consistency.

3) Start whipping your tempered egg whites. Add the icing sugar a spoon at a time and keep whisking until the mixture is glossy and leaves thick trails behind the whisk. It should hold its shape and remain in place when you turn the bowl upside down.

4) Fold in the ground almond and orange zest with a spatula. When that is well incorporated, add the cranberries and almond flakes.

5) By now your mixture should be a think, lumpy, sticky, nougaty thing. With two teaspoons, spoon dollops of mixture onto greaseproof paper. Allow aa decent amount of space between them as they will spread out while cooking. I managed 9 per tray.

6) Bake in the oven for at least 50 minutes. They should have a lightly golden, crisp shell but be soft in the middle and (after cooling for a few minutes) be able to peel it away from the paper sheet in one piece. If you want the cookies more crisp, keep them in the oven 15 minutes more.

7) Leave to cool slightly before dusting with cocoa powder and serving.