Name: Saint Peter’s almond meringue with white peach caramel
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 115 min
Total time: 145 min
Yield: 8 - 10

Saint Peter’s almond meringue with white peach caramel

“The caramel is a modern take on preserving, the hot caramel capturing the fruit’s flavour, like a refined jam,” says Saint Peter's Julie Niland.

Serves 8 - 10

Prep

30M

Cook

1H 55M

Total

2H 25M

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“The caramel is a modern take on preserving, the hot caramel capturing the fruit’s flavour, like a refined jam,” says Saint Peter chef Julie Niland. “I’ve kept it for up to 10 months and it’s still as fragrant and intensely flavoured as on day one. Granny Smith apples, plums, pineapple, even roasted Jerusalem artichokes, can all be used.”

Ingredients

300gm eggwhite (about 8)

300gm caster sugar

150gm icing sugar mixture, sieved

1 tbsp rice flour, sieved

1 tsp white wine vinegar

scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean

50gm flaked almonds

Peach-caramel cream

300gm white peaches, stones removed, skin on

150gm caster sugar

500ml thickened cream, whisked to soft peaks

Method

Main

1.Preheat oven to 200C. Butter a 20cm-square cake tin and line it with baking paper. Whisk eggwhite in an electric mixer on high speed until frothy, then add caster sugar 1 tbsp at a time and whisk continuously until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low, whisk in icing sugar, rice flour, vinegar and vanilla seeds. Spoon meringue into prepared tin and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Reduce oven temperature to 145C and bake meringue until crisp and dry (1 hour 45 minutes). Turn off oven and leave meringue to cool completely in oven (3-4 hours).

2.For peach-caramel cream, process peaches in a blender until smooth. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Scatter a third of the sugar evenly in pan and cook, swirling pan and gradually adding remaining sugar as it melts, then stir gently until dark caramel (4-5 minutes). Whisk in peach purée (be careful, hot caramel may spit). Remove from heat, cool, then refrigerate. Just before serving, place a spoonful of caramel in each serving bowl, and gently fold the remainder through the cream to form a ripple effect.

3.Divide meringue into 8-10 large portions (we’ve cut it into 8cm squares) and serve with a generous scoop of caramel-cream.