Difficulty: Medium
Serves 8
Meringue is one of those things that vegans through the ages have been trying to nail. The current craze to hit the vegan community is the use of canned chickpea juice instead of egg white. While this may seem like a strange concept, I am here to tell you that it freaking works and it’s bloody amazing and you should all give it a try RIGHT NOW! Naturally my first instinct was to make an epic pav but stay tuned because I’m nowhere near finished with this bean juice jive.
Ingredients
- 2x 270mL cans of coconut cream (placed upside down in the fridge for at least 2 days)
- 2/3 cup canned chickpea liquid (less salt is best)
- 2/3 cup caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup icing sugar
- 1/2 peach, sliced
- 2 kiwi fruits, peeled and sliced
- 6 strawberries, cut in half
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup raspberries
Method
- Preheat oven to 120°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the chickpea juice until it starts to turn white.
- Add the caster sugar, one tablespoon at a time before adding the xanthan gum and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
- Once the meringue is firm, pick your jaw up off the floor and carefully pour onto the lined baking tray, making a large disc about 8cm high.
- Bake in the oven for 2-2 1/2 hours until the meringue is set and off white in colour (longer if you want it crisp the whole way through). Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- Open the cans of coconut cream and drain off the clear liquid. Scoop out the remaining cream and beat with an electric mixer, slowly adding the icing sugar and remaining vanilla extract until whipped.
- Once the meringue has cooled completely, evenly distribute the cream over the top before layering with the fruit.
- I recommend serving immediately as the meringue will soften over time.
haha number 4 🙂
This is so delicious! I am on an aquafaba bender, having made meringue cookies yesterday-this is a fantastic vegan option and dessert!
Isn’t it awesome, Mia! Thanks for the comment 😀
So I tried this tonight. Definitely a miracle. Just need to work on better flavor. I could still taste the chickpea flavor..
It’s crazy, huh!? Yes, it can be a bit of a balancing act getting the flavours right. Try adding extra vanilla next time 😀
Use butterbean aqua faba!
I can’t stand the chickpea taste in meringues either, but butter bean is not noticeable at all!
Great tip, thanks Katrina!
Use white northern beans, no bean flavor same fluffy miracle. Please spread the word.
Flavour is splendiferous, found no added salt organic chickpeas, but alas … cooked it for a little over two and a half hours, as instructed and let it cool in the oven with the door ajar. But when it came time to remove to a serving plate the inside was completely hollow and we had a crispy shell with a little sticky meringue ‘snotlike’ residue underneath. I’ve got no idea what went wrong because we followed the instructions to the letter. Any ideas, people?
Sometimes depending on the height of the meringue and your oven you may need to cook it a little longer. I’ll do some testing and update the cooking time if necessary 😀 My tip for next time would be to make the meringue less high and cook the heck out of it!
Thanks for sharing this recepie! Looks amazing! Does anybody know if the pavlova (meringue) does melt after spreading the cream? I”ve heard it does 🙁
I would add the topping just before serving, Paulina. If you bake them as long as you can before they start to brown, they should be crunchy all the way through with little to no melting 😀
It went into the oven all stiff peaked and then went flat in the oven. Are you able to help say why? thanks 🙂
Hi Trina, thanks for the comment! Unfortunately it won’t stay as peaked as it was when it went into the oven so it’s bound to settle somewhat. Make sure you build it up higher to allow for that. Some days it works better than others (I assume because of the outside temperature) so you’ve just got to find out how it works for you 😀
thanks for that. so i am determined to get this and I tried again and it held the peaks but it is really sticky. Would this be the normal end result? I am so excited to see this Aquafaba that I want it to work 🙂
No worries 😀 It definitely shouldn’t be sticky. I’ve found that sometimes I need to bake the hell out of it to make it super crispy but it does mean there’s no chewiness inside.
finally got it!! dertermination paid off. wohoo! can these be stored to keep its texture?
Tried these at the weekend, delicious, thanks for the recipe. Looks like Aquafaba has gone mainstream, even RN is covering it: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/aquafaba/7713054
Yay, glad you loved them! How cool that more and more people are getting involved 😀
Hi Chelsey, I live in Richmond, NSW (just down the road from you ! lol) Just wondering which brand of coconut cream you use as the ones that I have been using are not separating into thick cream like it should – love this aquafaba stuff !!
Hi Cristina! I’ve found the brand Trident works really well. Hopefully it works for you too!
Many thanks Chelsey – I shall give it a go !
Hi, i made the aquafaba mix, put it in the oven, after about 15 mins it’s started burning, I opened the oven door and it flopped in, I had it baking at 180’C, just wondering what I did wrong and how it can be rectified next time I try it
Hey Thasami, thanks for your comment!
It sounds like your oven may have been too hot. It needs to bake at 120°C for a couple of hours.
Good luck on your next try!