Strawberry Meringue Baskets - Strawberry #3

I made this sometime ago because I happened to have a tub of greek yogurt. Ipoh's latest shopping center Aeon Station 18 has opened not too long ago and on my first visit, I saw a new range of products brought into Ipoh city :) Finally greek yogurt has arrived.

I've been visually attracted to this meringue basket sometime ago... and it was supposely to be filled with whipped cream and topped with strawberries. I decided to borrow that concept and use greek yogurt and fill it with strawberries too, rather than just on top. And add some texture and flavour contrast with a chocolate ganache as sauce.

Greek yogurt which like all yogurt tastes sour. Strawberries are slightly tart. Dark chocolate sauce is slightly bitterish... perfect to balance up the sweetness from the meringue. My kids, inlaws and my hubby all loved this dessert. My hubby was impressed with this that some time later that when we did some entertaining at home, he asked if I'll be making this for dessert again, LOL. I said no, I don't have greek yogurt on hand. I saw his dissapointed face, LOL.

If you want to ask me, "Wendy, is this sweet? Can I reduce sugar?"

Any meringue will taste sweet. Same goes to pavlova. You can't really reduce the sugar, if not, it might be too soft to pipe out... for meringue. (correct me if I'm wrong). But pavlova is just piling on, still can reduce a bit if you dare. We need to make this to be at a pipable consistency. But if one were to calculate the sugar.... it's about 10gm in each meringue basket as I got 12 pcs of it from this recipe. Same amount of sugar from your chiffon cake if you made it with 120gm of sugar and cut it into 12 pieces. If you cut it lesser than 12 pcs, then there's more sugar in your chiffon cake slice than in one piece of this meringue, although, by comparison this meringue basket definitely tastes much much sweeter. You may happen to eat more than one piece of chiffon cake continously, but I doubt you will take 2 of these in one go due the "sweetness" that you felt while eating You will probably be cautious and restrain yourself. But in fact, it's non less evil. Like I always say, moderation is always the key.

Strawberry Meringue Baskets

Meringue recipe: Golden Book Of Desserts

Assembly: WendyinKK

Meringue Baskets
2 egg whites (60gm)
60gm castor sugar
60gm icing sugar

Other components
Diced strawberries for filling (5mm cubes)
Greek yogurt
Sliced strawberries for deco
Chocolate ganache (melt 1:1 dark chocolate and cream)

1. Beat egg whites with caster sugar until stiff. Put in icing sugar by the teaspoonsful and beat until stiff. At this point, test by rubbing some of the meringue between 2 fingers, it shouldn’t feel gritty.

2. Preheat oven to 110(fan)/130 and line a baking tray with non stick baking paper.
3. Attach a medium sized star tip to a piping bag. Fill piping bag with meringue.
4. Pipe a round base, then create the sides of the basket by swirling the meringue 3 times around.
5. Bake the meringue baskets for 90 minutes. Let them cool down totally in the oven. Keep them airtight if not consuming immediately
6. Assembly: Place some diced strawberries into the meringue basket. Then fill in some greek yogurt. Top with sliced strawberries. Chocolate ganache can be piped onto the meringue or under the meringue, as you wish. Serve immediately.

I assembled these in a different manner because these 6 pcs were to be brought to some relatives.

I can't be having the sauce on the bottom, so they had to be on the top.