brown sugar meringue with chai custard and spiced apples with elderberries

I think meringue is one of my favourite desserts, this one has brown sugar in it which makes the meringue lovely and chewy, I decided to make use of the left over yolks and make a custard, I infused it with chai tea. the apples got their wonderful red colour from elderberries, which are in season right now. I found the elderberries whilst walking the dog, and added them in a pan with some sugar, spices water and apples.

4 egg whites
165g 3/4 cup brown sugar
55g 1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp corn flour
1 tsp white white vinegar

preheat the oven to 120c

in the bowl of a stand mixer add the egg whites (keep the yokes to make the custard)

whip until they are frothy then add the sugars, and cream of tartar and continue to whip until thick and glossy then add the vinegar and corn flour continue whipping until stiff peaks form.

spoon the mixture onto a lined tray and use the back of a spoon to shape into a large nest.

bake for 1 hour 25 minutes.

turn the oven off and leave it in there for a further 20 minutes.

to make the custard

1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, seeds removed or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 chai tea bags
1/4 cup 60g brown sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp. corn flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise

To make the custard, slit the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Put both pod and seeds and the cinnamon stick and star anise into a heavy-based saucepan with the milk and bring slowly just to the boil, to infuse the vanilla and spices then add the chai tea bags and leave to infuse off the heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix together for a few seconds, then sift in the flour and mix again. remove the tea bags and cinnamon and star anise and heat the milk again then Pour the 1/4 of the milk over the yolk mixture, continuously whisking to prevent curdling, then pour in the rest whisking constantly then return the mixture to the saucepan. Add the salt then cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly for about 5 minutes, until very thick.

pour into bowl and place some cling film onto the custard to stop it getting a skin,

once cooled to make it a bit looser to top the meringue whip half a cup of double cream and fold it through the custard.

for the apples

2 dessert apples
berries from one bunch of elderberries
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise

in a pan add the water, sugar elderberries and spices over a medium heat let simmer, peel and slice the apples and add to the pan, cook until apples become tender. let cool

place meringue on a place spread on the pastry cream then top with apples and drizzle over some of the cooking liquid.

to make the meringue I used my new magimix pattisier its great as it has two parts one metal patisserie bowl that can be used for whipping eggs or making dough ect and the food processer bowls with all the attachments, I have used it almost every day since I got it.