Forest Berries Meringue Pie/Waldbeeren Meringue Kuchen

Happy weekend everyone!!

While growing up in Switzerland, we used to spend a lot of time in the forest. With family or with school. They have nicely looked after hiking trails. There is just something calming and peaceful about it. We would also often look for and find a lot of blueberries and strawberries! Now these are sweet memories:)

I’ve had a lot of raspberries and we are still picking some strawberries in our garden. We used to have blackberries but after getting hurt (scratched) a lot, we had enough and we dug the plant out…but I tell you that is a stubborn plant, it keeps on growing back…My brother in Switzerland has a thorn-less blackberry plant!!! That is the most amazing thing. Haven’t seen this here so far.

For this berry pie I used a mix of what I like to call forest berries (Waldbeeren): blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Deliciously melt in your mouth meringue filling! Totally worth trying out! Feel free to use your favorite pie crust recipe.

 

 

 

 

Forest Berries Meringue Pie

Pie crust:

• 200 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100 g butter, cold, cut into very small pieces
• 2-3 tbsp honey
• 1/2 lemon, zest
• 1 egg

-Mix together flour and salt, add butter and with a pastry blender or your hands mix until crumbly.

-Add lemon zest, honey and egg. Knead only until it holds together. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

-Preheat oven to 375F/190C

-Grease a 9-inch pie form. Roll out dough to fit form. Prick dough with a fork. For blind baking I cover bottom with parchment paper, then as a weight I pour some legumes like dry chickpeas over paper. Bake for about 10 minutes then remove paper with legumes and lower oven temperature to 350F/180C and finish bake until golden brown.

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 pinch of salt
• 150 g sugar (I used honey)
• 500 g berries of your choice (I used blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)

-Beat egg whites with salt until peaks form, add half of the sugar, beat until shiny then add rest of sugar until stiff.

-Mix half of the meringue with the berries. Fill into baked pie crust. Then top with remaining meringue.

-Bake in 375F/190C oven for a few minutes until golden brown.

 

 

Hiking in the Swiss Alps 2016

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Wishing you all a happy weekend!

Ursula

 

 

 

 

You can find me on Instagram: @littleswisslittlecanadian

 

 

 

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Snowball-Apples

Several Years ago I received a cookbook that features 200 year old recipes from the beautiful Emmental region in Switzerland. If your wondering-yes, this is the region were the Emmentaler Cheese is from:)

Many recipes are well known dishes in today’s households. I am used to eat and prepare baked apples filled with ground hazelnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon. Such a classic!

Topped with Meringue, my kids thought these look a little bit like snowballs:)

 

 

In the book these are called Snow-Apples/Schnee-Aepfel.

 

Snowball-Apples

• 4 apples
• jam of your liking (I used red currant)
• applejuice
• 1 or 2 eggwhites
• sugar

 

-Preheat oven to 375F/190C

-Peel apples (I left the skin on), cut out the cores. Place apples in a baking dish.

-Fill holes with jam. Cover the bottom of your dish with some juice.

-Bake in oven for about 40 min. or until soft.

-Whip one or two egg-whites until soft peaks form, add sugar and keep whisking until shiny.

-Top apples with Meringue and bake 10 minutes, or until lightly brown.

 

–I used 2 egg whites which gave the snowball effect;)–

–I prepared the meringue with honey–

 

Recipe from the book: Aemmitaler Chuchi.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marinated Oranges with Meringue topping

After all the holiday meals this dessert is light and refreshing. Citrus fruits are a great source of vitamin C, that is for sure useful during the cold winter month. The meringue reminds me of the beautiful mountains in Switzerland. I grew up surrounded by hills and on sunny days you could see the mountains in the distance. We spend many vacations renting a Chalet in the mountains and hiking every day in a still almost untouched surrounding. Whenever we visit my family, I soak in all that beauty, and make lots of pictures too:)

Here in Canada we have the beautiful Rocky Mountains but they are far away from Ontario where we live. The landscape here is pretty flat.

Marinating the oranges gives it a special touch, but it also tastes great without alcohol. I dusted the meringue with a little bit of icing sugar to mimic the snow covered mountain tops;)

 

 

 

Marinated Oranges with Meringue topping

• 3 Oranges; blood oranges, Grapefruit…
• 2 Mandarins
• 100ml Orangejuice
• 2tbsp Cointreau, Rum, Schnapps…

• 4 eggwhites
• 1pinch of salt
• 3tbsp honey, or sugar
• 1tsp orange zest

 

-Cut oranges and mandarins in thin slices, remove white skin. Layer in a baking dish and cover with the alcohol and orangejuice. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

-In a medium bowl whip eggwhites with the salt until soft peaks form then add honey and whip until stiff and shiny. Add orange zest and fold it gently under the eggwhites. Cover the fruit with the egg mixture and bake immediatly in a 200C preheated oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

-Dust with some icing sugar and serve warm.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!