Apricot meringue

Recipe by: Lynne Hinton, Paraparaumu

Ingredients

1 cup	Caster sugar
1 cup	Water
500 g	Dried apricots, good quality ones (Main)
3	Egg whites
1 pinch	Salt
1 cup	Caster sugar, additional to previous one
2 tsp	Cornflour
½ tsp	White wine vinegar
300 ml	Cream
1 cup	Walnuts, freshly shelled
1 cup	Caster sugar, (3 cups caster sugar in total)

Directions

1. Place caster sugar and 1 cup of water into a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to boil. Simmer for 2 minutes Add apricots, Cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Cool. Transfer to a food processor or nutriblender and process until a smooth puree forms. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.
2. Heat oven to 120C. Draw 12 x 8cm circles on 2 sheets of baking paper and place onto baking trays. Place egg white and salt in a bowl. Beat with electric beater until soft peaks form. With motor running, slowly add sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until thick and glossy. Add cornflour and vinegar. Beat until just combined.
3. Spoon 1 heaped tablespoon of meringue mixture onto each drawn circle and spread evenly. Bake for 1 hour or until firm to the touch. Turn the oven off and allow meringue to cool in oven with door ajar.
4. Dice the walnuts up not to finely but not too coarse
5. Heat the 3rd cup of castor sugar in a heavy based non stick fry pan (Stonedine pan) until it liquefies into toffee, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn, toss the walnuts into the toffee until they are coated in toffee. Lift them out of the pan and spread on baking paper to cool.
6. To assemble whip the cream, spread each meringue with apricot puree, top with whip cream and then sprinkle the toffeed walnuts on top. Any left over apricot puree can be used with ice cream for another dessert