coconut meringue brittle hearts

coconut meringue brittle hearts

• 10 Feb 2025

I'm not one to celebrate Valentine's Day but when I saw Ottolenghi advertising coconut meringue brittle for Valentine's Day, I was intrigued. I realised there was a recipe for the brittle in Sweet and with a few tweaks I'd be able to make the brittle at home. 

I made half a batch, then wondered if I should fashion the brittle into hearts for Valentine's Day? I found a heart shaped cookie cutter and traced out 6 hearts onto the baking paper. Fashioning the hearts was a bit of a fiddle but then again Valentine's Day only comes around once a year. 

Ottolenghi describes the brittle as 'somewhere between a meringue and an old-fashioned coconut macaroon: as sweet as you'd want and expect, but with more of a crunch. They're informal, rustic and exceptionally moreish' and I have to agree. Although I coated the hearts with white chocolate, I think a dark chocolate coating would be just as delicious. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 12 hearts. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Coconut Meringue Brittle Hearts

75g slivered almonds + additional 20g for topping
100g icing sugar
50g desiccated coconut
75g egg whites (from 2 large eggs)
½ tsp salt
75g icing sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract

White chocolate coating 
120g white chocolate, roughly chopped Into I cm pieces
25g freeze-dried raspberries, roughly torn into pieces
20g toasted slivered almonds pieces
Sumac for sprinkling

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Spread the slivered almonds out on a baking tray and roast for about 5 minutes until the nuts are starting to turn light brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Reserve 20g for the topping before roughly chopping the rest of the almonds. Keep the oven turned on.

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, add the coconut and the chopped almonds and set aside until ready to use. Line two large baking trays with baking paper and trace 6 hearts onto each piece of paper using a heart shaped cookie cutter. Set aside.

To make the meringue, place the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Beat on a medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add the second portion of icing sugar in 1 go, continuing to whisk for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thick and glossy and stiff peaks form. Stir through the vanilla extract, then remove the bowl from the mixer. Use a large rubber spatula to gently but thoroughly fold in the icing sugar mixture.

Spoon twelve large spoonfuls of the mixture on to the parchment-lined trays and using a small spatula, roughly spread them out to form heart shapes about 1-1.5cm thick. If you can't be bothered making hearts, then just free form it. Don’t try for uniform shapes or sizes here, rustic is good. Place the trays in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 140°C, conventional. Bake for 1 hour, until the meringues are dry throughout but have not taken on too much colour. Turn off the oven but leave the meringues inside for about 30 minutes, propping the door open with a wooden spoon, to continue to cool and dry out. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely.

To coat the meringues
Place the chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl is not touching the water. Stir occasionally until melted, then use a small metal spatula to spread the chocolate all over the base (flat side) of the meringues. Sprinkle some of the raspberries, the slivered almonds and touch of sumac on top of the chocolate after it's been brushed over the meringues. Set aside for about 1 hour until the chocolate has set, then pile high on a plate and serve.

Store in an airtight container with a layer of greaseproof paper in between the layers.

Trying to make chocolate coated hearts when the kitchen temperature was about 30°C was a bit of a challenge but nothing than 10 minutes in the fridge couldn't solve.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian