Tray Baked Meringue With Pears Cream Toasted Hazelnuts And Chocolate Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2 and line 40 x 25cm baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper.
• Put your egg whites into a squeaky clean bowl, making sure there are absolutely no little pieces of egg shell or egg yolk in them.
• Whisk on medium until the whites form firm peaks.
• With your mixer still running, gradually add the sugar and the pinch of salt.
• Turn the mixer up to the highest setting and whisk for about 7-8 minutes, until the meringue mixture is white and glossy, to test whether it's done you can pinch some between your fingers- if it feels completely smooth it's ready; if it's slightly granular it needs a little more whisking.
• Dot each corner of the greaseproof paper with a blob of meringue, then turn it over and stick it to the baking tray, spoon the meringue out onto the paper, using the back of a spoon, shape and swirl it into a A4 size rectangle.
• Place in the preheated oven and bake for a hour or until crisp on the outside and a little soft and sticky on the inside, at the same time bake the hazelnuts on a separate tray in the oven for a hour or until golden brown.
• Drain the tin of pears, reserving the syrup from the tin, cut each pear into 6 slices.
• Pour the pear syrup into a saucepan (with the ginger) and warm gently over a medium heat until it starts to simmer.
• Take off the heat and snap the chocolate into saucepan with the syrup, stirring with a spoon until its all melted.
• Take the meringue and hazelnuts out of the oven and leave to cool.
• Place the meringue on a nice rustic board or platter.
• Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla seeds until it forms smooth soft peaks.
• Smash the toasted hazelnuts (in a tea towel) and sprinkle half of them over the meringue.
• Spoon half the whipped cream over the top of the meringue and drizzle with some of the chocolate syrup sauce.
• Divide most of the pear pieces evenly over the top, pile on the rest of the whipped cream, drizzle with the chocolate syrup sauce and the rest of the hazelnuts.
• Serve straight away.