This recipe is a showstopping summer dessert and can be made ahead of time and just decorated at the last minute. The idea is to have a meringue top and bottom – with ice cream in between. I have included recipes for all 3 of the ice cream recipes, but if you were short of time you could buy some quality ice cream and use. I would recommend making the AVA strawberry sorbet though, the taste of the fruit really packs a punch.
For the Meringue discs
- Pre-heat oven to 130C Fan
- 6 egg whites
- 320g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until they reach stiff peaks. Now add the sugar a tbsp at a time until all incorporated. Now add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk to combine. The mixture should be thick and glossy.
Take a 20cm springform tin and remove the disc from the bottom. Take 2 baking sheets and line with baking parchment – use the disc to draw circles on each baking sheet to guide the size of the meringues. Split the meringue mixture in half and create two equal sized meringues. Bake in the oven for 2 hours. Once baked leave them in the oven with the door closed until it is completely cool.
Once removed from the oven place one of the meringue discs in the springform tin – ready to top with the ice cream.
For the AVA Strawberry Sorbet
- 250g AVA Strawberries
- 50g sugar
- 20ml water
- ¼ lime
Add a tablespoon of the sugar in a pan with the strawberries – heat until the juices begin to come out of the berries. Now blitz in a food processor and pass through a sieve.
In a pan heat the remaining sugar and water until all of the sugar has dissolved. Add the strawberry puree and the lime juice and chill.
Place in an ice cream machine and churn. (If you don’t have one – use the freezer, but remove the liquid and blend every hour or so until frozen)
For the Pistachio Ice Cream
- 100g caster sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 375ml milk
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or essence
- 125ml double cream
- 130g pistachio paste (you can buy this or make it by blending pistachios in a food processor until smooth. This recipe is for unsweetened pistachio paste, but if yours is sweetened, add less sugar)
- 1/2 to 1 tsp fine sea salt
Heat the milk in a pan until nearly boiling. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until it is lighter and paler in colour. Add the hot milk to the bowl and combine. Now return the mixture to the pan and heat until it reaches around 80C and coats the back of the spoon. Now add the vanilla, salt, cream and pistachio paste. Cool the mixture, then churn in an ice cream maker.
- Vanilla Ice Cream
- 284ml carton double cream
- 300ml full fat milk
- 115g golden caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod or vanilla essence
- 3 large free-range egg yolks
Use exactly the same method as above – minus the pistachio!
To Finish:
- 200ml double cream
- 1 punnet of AVA Strawberries
- 15 pistachios chopped
Take an ice cream scoop and a jug of hot water. Spoon the 3 ice creams onto the meringue base in the springform tin. Add ice cream to cover the whole area and try not to leave any gaps. Now smooth the top a little and return to the freezer. When you are ready to serve the dessert, remove it from the freezer and allow to stand for at least half an hour. Now add the other meringue on top of the ice cream. Whip the double cream to soft peaks and place on top of the meringue. Add AVA strawberries to the top and sprinkle some chopped pistachios.
