This recipe is the precious little offspring of a marriage between a muxus, a moist almond macaroon sandwich meaning “kiss” in the local dialect, and a chaumontais, a pastry made from cloudlike meringue with a golden hazelnut cream filling. While they were both a delight to eat on my visit to the Basque region, the muxus could have benefited from the traditional Parisian ganache filling, and the chaumontais were exceptionally enormous. So I thought I’d add a little Parisian finesse to these two classics and create dainty meringues with praline cream, easy to pop in your mouth. Just like kisses, you can’t get enough of them.
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- Several drops of lemon juice
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- 1 recipe Praline
- 7 tbsp (100 g) butter, softened
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 175°F. In a clean glass or metal bowl, whisk the egg whites and, when they begin to froth, add the lemon juice plus 2 to 3 tbsp of the sugar. Continue to whisk for another minute before adding a little more sugar. Repeat until all the sugar is used and the whites have formed stiff peaks. Scrape the meringue into the piping bag.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Pipe a dot of meringue under each corner to keep the paper in place, then pipe 1-inch dollops of meringue across the paper, leaving a gap between each one. Sprinkle a little praline on top of each meringue, then place in the middle of the oven and bake for 1½ hours. Leave in the oven with the door ajar for another 30 minutes before removing from the oven. Leave on the baking sheet until cooled completely.
- Set aside 2 tbsp of the praline. Whip the butter until pale. Mix in the rest of the praline. Spread a small blob onto a meringue before sandwiching with another meringue. Once the meringues are sandwiched together, roll them in the reserved 2 tbsp praline so it sticks to the outer edge of the filling.