BASIC COOKBOOK RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter muffin pans. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg, milk, and butter, stirring only enough to dampen the flour; the batter should not be smooth. Spoon into the muffin pans, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes each.
• Use ½ cup sugar. Reserve ¼ cup of the flour, sprinkle it over 1 cup blueberries, and stir them into the batter last.
• Use ¼ cup sugar. Add ½ cup chopped pecans to the batter. After filling the cups, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and more chopped nuts.
• Use ¾ cup whole-wheat flour and 1 cup white flour.
• Add ½ cup chopped pitted dates or ⅓ cup raisins to the batter.
• Add 3 strips bacon, fried crisp and crumbled, to the batter.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 140°C/fan120°C/gas 1. In a large, grease-free mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. While continuously whisking, slowly add the caster sugar – 1 tbsp at a time – until you have a stiff, glossy meringue mixture. Whisk in the vanilla extract until combined.
• Line a baking tray with baking paper, fixing it in place with a tiny blob of meringue in each corner (we have a /basic-meringue-video/short video showing this technique). Using a metal spoon, place 6 craggy dollops of meringue on the baking paper, well spaced apart.
• Bake for 1¼ hours for mallowy centres, or 1½ hours if you prefer crisper meringues. Peel off the baking paper, then transfer the mallowy meringues to a wire rack to cool, or leave the crisp ones in the turned-off oven for at least 4 hours to cool slowly, then transfer to a wire rack.