Almost disastrous Mango and Passion Fruit Roulade

I set myself a challenge to find a low fat (ish) dessert that I could take along to a bring and share supper with some friends. The Good Food website has a brilliant thing at the bottom of the home page - if you ever look that far - where you can use a drop down menu to choose the top 5...... There's a lot of choice, and low and behold, one of the options is 'low fat desserts'. "That's the one for me", I thought. I clicked and the options came up including one that rang a bell. Turns out it was a dessert mum had made a while ago and had raved about.

And so here it is: Mango and Passion Fruit Roulade bookmarked from the Good Food website. A meringue base which you roll up, filled with Greek yoghurt, mango and passion fruit.

There are some nights when I should just stay right out of the kitchen. Last night was one of them, but I knew I would have no time today, so I needed to get the meringue made.

I checked out the recipe. My chosen tin was a little bigger than the one specified and I was potentially feeding more people than the 6 specified. No problem. I decided to add an extra egg white in and increase everything by a third. I already had 2 whites left over from the Crema Catalana I made, and I did actually remember to get them out of the fridge and use them. Not bad going. I separated another egg, added the white to my mixing bowl, then separated the fourth egg. But then I had a crisis. I'd already had one conversation with mum about how well the meringue would make in advance and how to store it. I'd decided to make the meringue bit and keep it separate from the filling until the last minute, but would the meringue keep?

I rang her and had another discussion, which ended rather unsatisfactorily with "Well, Sal, it's such a long time since I made it that I honestly can't remember, but if it's a bit soggy, well, it'll still be delicious."

Hmm.

I decided to make the meringue, roll it in greaseproof paper and store it overnight, rolled, and so I cracked on: whisked the egg whites till frothy, added the sugar (increased by a third), whisked, added the vanilla, vinegar and cornflour, whisked. I spooned my meringue into the tin as instructed, and into the oven it went. 

Then I saw the fourth egg white, sitting, lonely in the ramekin I had separated it into.

Language ensued. Still, there was nothing I could do, and I tried to console myself with the fact that the eggs were particularly large so could may be take the extra sugar, and not be too disgustingly sweet.

Then I wondered what to do with 2 egg yolks and a white. Lemon Curd. Of course: and I can stir it into the Greek yoghurt and offset some of the sweetness caused by there being too much sugar in the meringue...

In the end it was lemon and orange curd, because I had half an orange in the fridge, also left over from the Crema Catalana. If I get round to it, I may well post about the curd, but let me just say that anyone who suggests that it will only take 10 minutes of stirring to produce this ambrosial thing is lying. At the critical point when the meringue needed to come out of the oven and first be covered with a damp piece of greaseproof paper, and then, 10 minutes later, to be rolled up, I was still stirring furiously, keen to avoid lemony scrambled eggs - it has happened to me before. I know what I'm talking about...  

Anyway, the meringue got rolled ...

...and the curd didn't turn into scrambled eggs.

Roll forward to this evening. It's been a busy day and I thought I would take 5 minutes just to share the outcome.

Having had a hectic day, I got home via shops to do some last minute birthday shopping for the Husband who celebrates tomorrow. There was a certain amount to get done - a complicated situation relating to times tables (don't ask), presents to wrap, tea to make for the kids etc, and finally, time to unroll the meringue to fill and re-roll, triumphant.  Or not:

Still, undeterred, there was still a pudding to be made. I used 300g Greek yoghurt and stirred in about 1/2 the curd to spread over the meringue, then scattered over chopped mango and the pulp from 2 passion fruit, then had a go at rolling.

And do you know, it turned out not bad:

 













I'm linking up to Bookmarked Recipes for December on the Tinned Tomatoes blog, although it feels like a bit of a cheat because I've actually got round to making it very quickly after actually bookmarking it - but I have been meaning to look out this recipe for some time, and so hopefully that's OK!