Today me and Aimee were invited up to a dinner party, and while we were unsure of what we were going to be having, we knew it would be nice, as we were able to meet up with some friends and have a good evening with them.
After separating some egg whites from their yokes, we got to work preparing the first ingredient of the desert we decided to make.
Since the hosts were preparing dinner, myself and Aimee decided to make eton mess with whipped cream and fruit.
The egg yokes were kept in a small tub so we could make some scrambled eggs for Kaleb for his lunch tomorrow.
With two bowls, we measured out 115 grams of caster sugar, and 115 grams of icing sugar.
Egg whites and sugar, it sounds easy, but it proved to be a fairly complicated process and one we had never tackled before.
The caster sugar was poured into the mixture while it was being whipped up, one table spoon at around 4 second intervals.
Then the icing sugar was sprinkled into the mix after the fact, and the mixture was folded to mix the icing sugar.
After putting it on a pan, we put it in the oven for 1 hour.
It seemed to be okay, it tasted fine and was crispy on the outside, but we kind of knew something wasn't right with it. We weren't getting the stiff peaks, but decided to just go with it anyway, as we were running out of time.
I whipped up some double creme, which turned out fine, even though it was the dairy free stuff.
We had trouble whipping the dairy free cream before, but luckily this time it worked out fine.
The meringue seemed to be okay.
We started putting it into the bowl as the base for everything else, but as we scraped it, we soon realised it was raw in the centre, and basically inedible.
Rather than giving up, we decided to just run to the shop so we could buy some meringue that we could use with the whipped cream and fruit.
The reason ours didn't work was because a small drop of egg yoke went into the mix, and even though I tried to get it out, there was some remnant left. I had no idea that even the tiniest amount would ruin the entire batch of egg whites.
Next time, I'll be separating the eggs individually before pouring them all into the big bowl. Lesson learned.
The dinner was so nice.
It's a Dutch dinner, which would be done on special occasions, it was really nice because it kind of encourages people to talk as they pass particular dishes around the table.
Each person can go at their own pace and make whatever they feel like. With such a great selection of food everyone is able to have whatever they want, and because there is so much choice you get to enjoy a lot of different flavours.
I also noticed that eating small portions, spread out over the course of about an hour allowed us to enjoy some great conversations.
After cleaning the dishes and putting things away we cracked out the dessert, and being a light one, we were all able to enjoy a bowl even though we were fairly full.
It was a great night, and me and Aimee really want to buy one of the grills so we can do something like this occasionally at home.