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!

G&T time - but not before I tell you about these chocolate muffins

I was mentally trying to review the day ahead over breakfast this morning with half an ear on the children’s conversation. They’re big on jokes at the moment and Blue in particular is trying to push the comedy boundaries

“What do you canaries eat for breakfast” “Tweetabix!”

“What do you get if you run a canary over with a lawnmower” “Shredded Tweet!”

“What do you get if you run a banana skin over with a lawnmower” “Slippery gears” then (rather despondent) “That’s not really funny is it mummy?” “Well, not really, love, but it’s a good try.”

It’s hard being 8.

“Mummy” “Yeeessss” “What if I really did have a lawnmower, and there really was a banana skin and I revved it up really hard – vvvrrrroooommmmmmm - and it went racing over the banana skin?”

cup of tea - necessary when listening to Blue's jokes
www.samanthabarnes.co.uk

Too early.

So where was I? Oh yes, reviewing the day. With a cup of tea.

I remembered that I’d had a vague arrangement to see a friend for coffee. I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be able to fit it in during school hours, but that I could invite her and her boys over for tea. Quick text, job done. Now, what are we going to eat?

Nigella’s fabulous marmite spaghetti was already on the menu for the kids – easy to double, no problem, slice up some carrots and cucumber, add a few cherry tomatoes (with lots of added food miles) -  but what for pudding? I still have some of Hugh’s pumpkin and raisin tea loaf left over (although I made the beetroot variation – I couldn’t resist the promised purple marbling, and it didn’t disappoint, although I’d say not so much purple marbling as pink flecking). Blue and Pink have been enjoying it in their lunch boxes all week (really, they have – Pink, who will often survive a day at school on half a slice of cucumber and a few crumbs of oatcake regardless of what delights I put in to tempt her, has eaten a whole slice every day – amazing when you consider (1) that normally she won’t touch beetroot with a bargepole and (2) how much giggling and whispering time eating a whole slice must take up). However, I’m not sure it’s the kind of thing I would offer up as pudding to guests. Especially discerning guests of the 7 & 5 yr old boy kind.

I had a quick flick through Kitchen, and then reached for Dan. Muffins had occurred to me, and when I saw this recipe, I couldn’t resist. It also appeared that I already had everything required in the cupboard apart from eggs which I was going to have to buy anyway. Excellent.

Having completed the daily beasting that is making sure the kids are dressed and ready for school, and having kissed Blue goodbye (he walks to school on his own – I bite my nails every morning) I had a few minutes (have to give him a head start) so decided to be super-organised and get everything lined up and ready to go so that I could whip up the muffins while I was making my coffee and before settling down to the day’s work . While doing this, I realised that we didn’t have enough cornflour, but given the recipe decided that custard powder would probably do in its place, and headed out the door, Pink and the dog in tow.

After a glorious walk  – bright blue skies, crisp frosty morning, dog basically behaved – I got home with my eggs and some vegetable oil, and set to. I’ve never made muffins this way before, basically making a chocolate custard then beating in eggs and sifting the flour on top and beating in – and I was worried that they might be quite dense, but after the requisite 25 minutes, they looked risen and cooked and smelled divine.

out of the oven and looking good!

treacle chocolate fudge frosting

I had to put off the frosting till after pick up this afternoon. But work, another dog walk and dealing with the fall out of a busy week at school on the 15 minute walk home, had at least given me the time to decide between meringue butter cream and treacle chocolate fudge. More custard (again custard powder instead of cornflour, this time with treacle) and not quite enough dark chocolate, plus some butter and vanilla extract, and bingo. Treacel chocolate fudge frosting. Divine doesn’t begin to describe it.

I have to say that I couldn’t wait – in the interests of deciding whether they were the best chocolate muffin I would ever eat, I had to try them. Reader, I was not disappointed. If I was going to make any adjustments, I might include some chocolate chips, rather than just melting the chocolate in to the custard when making the muffins, but they weren’t heavy, and the frosting went beautifully.

Did I mention that my friend and her boys couldn’t make it after all? All the more for us!

a better cup of tea - one with a muffin attached