A year ago yesterday I married the love of my life.
It's so hard to believe that a year has passed since that day, but, as they say, time flies when you're having fun.
It's been a whirlwind year, filled with happiness, laughter and love. Some days I can't believe we're married. It still feels to good to be true. In fact, for the first few months, both of us would randomly say, "we're married" and look at each other and smile. We both joke that we're never going to win lotto because we've used up all our luck finding each other. Maybe that's true, but it still doesn't hurt to buy a ticket. Right?
To celebrate our first anniversary we visited the restaurant we ate at on our wedding day, Sails, in Noosa. With sweeping views of the Noosa beach, the company of my husband, and memories of our wedding lunch there one year ago, it was a beautiful way to spend the day. If you'd like to take a peek at what we ate, follow me on Instagram.
Our delicious and filling lunch meant we didn't feel like dinner last night, but I did want to celebrate with a special little something to enjoy with a glass of champagne. After tossing up several ideas I settled upon strawberries poached in champagne served on top of meringue nests, which was a great way to use up the 4 egg whites I had left over from making custard tarts.
To the champagne I added a vanilla and a little sugar and reduced the liquid over a medium high heat. As strawberries are so delicate cooking them in the poaching liquid would turn them to mush, so the strawberries are simply hulled and then covered in the reduced champagne syrup and refrigerated overnight. Due to it's overnight infusion the poaching liquid takes on the most gorgeous red tinge, that looks so pretty against pale, vanilla bean flecked whipped cream, and the meringue.
I've used the Italian meringue method for the meringues here, because it's my favourite, but you can use whichever method you feel most comfortable with. You could even use shop bought meringues. I won't tell. Promise!
One last thing. I've been lucky enough to be selected as a finalist in the Food category for the Pedestrian.TV Blogster awards! If you have a few spare seconds I'd appreciate your vote. All you need to do is click the "Like" button next to the Yeah Blog! image.
Thank you SO much for your support!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ITALIAN MERINGUE NESTS:
- 260 g caster sugar, 1 cup plus 2 tbs
- ½ cup water
- 4 egg whites
- pinch of salt
- CHAMPAGNE POACHED STRAWBERRIES:
- 1 cup champagne
- ¼ cup caster sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- 250 g strawberries, hulled and cut in half, 8 oz
- VANILLA WHIPPED CREAM:
- 1 cup whipping cream
- ¾ tbs caster sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
Instructions
- Preheat the oven 100 celsius (220 Fahrenheit) and line a large sheet tray with baking paper or a non stick baking matt.
- To make the Italian Meringue combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar. If any sugar crystals stick to the side of the saucepan take a wet pastry brush and brush the sugar crystals down into the sugar and water mixture. Place over a medium high heat and bring the sugar mixture to a boil. Add a candy thermometer and cook until it reaches soft ball stage 115 Celsius (240 Fahrenheit). Remove from the heat.
- While the sugar mixture is heating place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer along with a pinch of salt. When the sugar is almost at temperature begin whisking the egg whites (KitchenAid speed 6/10). Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and when soft peaks form in the egg whites switch the mixer to low and slowly pour in the sugar syrup in a thin steady stream, ensuring the syrup doesn’t hit the whisk and splatter everywhere and risking burning yourself. Switch the mixer to medium high (KitchenAid speed 6/10) and whisk until the mixture begins to cool and is thick and glossy and the mixing bowl is cool to touch. Around 10 minutes.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe a circle of approximately 10cm in diameter on the baking tray for the nest base. Pipe around the outer edge of the base for form the wall of the nests. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make 6 nests. You may have a little mixture left over. Either pipe additional nests or small meringues cookies which you can use to top the nests when serving.
- Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes before switching the oven off. Leave the meringues inside the oven to cool completely before removing.
- For the champagne poached strawberries place the champagne and caster sugar in a saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Split the vanilla bean and remove the seeds and add the bean and the seeds to the poaching liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil over a medium high heat and reduce the heat to low and simmer until reduced by half. Meanwhile place the strawberries in a bowl large enough to accommodate the strawberries and poaching liquid. When the champagne has reduced pour over the strawberries and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Place the whipping cream and sugar in a bowl. Use a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds using the back of the knife. Add the vanilla seeds to the cream and sugar and whip until soft peaks form.
- To serve add a dollop of cream to the base of each meringue and top with the strawberries and some of the poaching liquid before topping with a little extra cream.
Lizzy (Good Things) says
Congratulations Jennifer... and this is a beeeeeeeautiful post!
Jennifer says
Thanks Lizzy
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
Such a scrumptious dessert to celebrate with, those champagne poached berries sound divine!
Rosa says
Happy Anniversary and congratulations! Indeed, time passes really fast...Lovely meringue nests!Cheers,Rosa
Consuelo @ Honey & Figs says
Congratulations on the anniversary! And what a lovely dessert to celebrate it with, it looks delicious! x
Joanna @ Chic & Gorgeous Treats says
Hi Jen! How're you? It's been so long that I have been away from the food blog-o-sphere and I know how much I have missed out on all of your delectable creations. I love your take on a classic meringue and strawberries poached in champagne. Sounds sexy and seriously good eats in my book. I must go grab a good bottle to try this out. Gorgeous photos and have a great week!!
Jeannie says
Gorgeous creation! Bet it's sweet and delicious! Happy anniversary to you and your hubby:)
Kathryn says
Happy anniversary! What a delight of a dessert to mark the occasion : )
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says
Congratulations to you both on a fantastic year. I love Sails too! Champagne poached strawberries? OMG I'm in love!
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com says
Congrats my friend! And what a delicious way to celebrate 🙂
Joanne T Ferguson says
G'day! Happy Anniversary Jennifer, true!Time flies when you are having fun too!Congrats on your nomination, voted for you!Love your meringue nests....very romantic...Cheers! Joanne
Lynda says
How much sugar is in the poaching liquid - is it 1/4 cup? Also how many cups of caster sugar is in 260 grams?
Jennifer says
Hi Lynda,Yes, it's 1/4 cup. 260 grams of caster sugar is approximately 1 cup and 2 tbs. I've updated the recipe to reflect this. I've included some handy metric to imperial conversion charts here, however if you need to convert something else check out Traditional Oven as they have some great conversion tools.Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂 I hope you enjoy them.
[email protected] says
Wow I can't believe it has been a whole year! Happy Anniversary! That's so funny we had our anniversary dinner at Sails too.
Jennifer says
Oh really! Wow! When were you there?
[email protected] says
Back at the end of April.
Gail says
Hello JenniferJust wanted to say Congratulations!Anniversaries are always special, but especially the first. What you said was lovely too and it sounds like you are going to have many, many more to come 🙂
Jennifer says
Thanks Gail 🙂 Lovely to hear from you, as always.
Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul says
Congratulations Jennifer. Happy anniversary! Love the meringues with the champers and berries! Yum!
Jennifer says
Thanks Peter 🙂 Champers is always my favourite way to celebrate.
Lizzy (Good Things) says
Great minds think alike, I had my post ready to go as you published yours. Your meringues and berries look so beautiful!