#1. Meringues Bird's Nests with Easter Eggs - a difficult recipe for experienced Kid Chefs!

Hi! Let's make this the best and yummiest Easter ever. Join me on my cooking & baking challenges. This recipe is super-difficult as you can easily overbeat the eggs. So you need to be very precise and work with a lot of patience. If you're a beginner kid chef, then better start with Challenge 2 Easter Bunny Bread. Don't forget to send me a photo of your baking trophees. I'm SUPERcurious. Good luck! 

Enrica

Kid's Recipe Merengue Bird's Nests with Easter Eggs or Fresh Fruit

• Large bowl, if possible one made from glass, stainless steel, metal or another material that is not plastic.
• Electric hand mixer
• Spatula
• Piping bag or plastic bag with a bottom corner cut open.
• Oven + oven tray

• Baking paper in the size of your oven tray
• A pair of scissors
• Weighing scale
• Spoon
• 2 clean cloths/sponge/towel: 1 for cleaning and 1 for drying the utensils.

Ingredients Merengue Bird's Nests with Easter Eggs or Fresh Fruit

• sugar: you need the same amount of sugar as egg white (see step 5).
  it’s best to use powder or other very fine sugar
• 6 eggs
  preferably at room temperature as they then beat easier and faster. Although, it’s easier to separate the egg whites and yolks when they’re cold. The choice is yours!
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• easter eggs or cut fresh fruit to put in the nests 
• vinegar or lemon juice for cleaning
• a little butter or oil to make the baking paper stick to the oven tray
• butter brush

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius.

Step 2: Use the brush and butter / oil, to line the oven tray with baking paper. Put the tray aside.

Step 3: Clean all the other utensils with vinegar / lemon juice and a cloth. Then, dry everything with a cloth or paper towel. 

Step 4: Separate the egg white from the egg yolk. Be aware, you need to weigh how much egg white you’ll have. Put the egg whites in the large bowl. Put the egg yolk in a container, close it with a lid and save it to glaze your Easter Breads (Challenge #2) or add it to your Spinach pie (Challenge #3)

Step 5:  Weigh your egg whites. I had 129 grams of egg white in total. So I needed 129 grams of sugar for step 8.

Step 6: Add the lemon juice to the bowl with egg whites.

Step 7: Mix the egg white and lemon juice with a hand mixer at medium speed.
- First, the egg whites become foamy and a little white. Continue mixing.
- Then the egg whites become really white and soft peaks will form with the tips that flip down.

Step 8: Once you’ve got the soft peaks, reduce the speed of the mixer. While mixing at a slow speed, add one tablespoon of sugar to the mixture. Mixing for 15 seconds before adding the next tablespoon of sugar. Continue this till all of the sugar is in the bowl. Do not cheat by adding more sugar at one go! Be patient, chef. It may take 4 minutes to finish all the sugar.

Be careful, check the mixture frequently to prevent over-beating the egg whites. When the egg whites are grainy, watery, and flat, you’ve beaten the eggs too long. They cannot be saved. Game over. Mix till the egg white foam sticks to a spoon while holding it upside down. 

Step 9:  Use a spatula to put the fluffy egg mixture in a piping bag  / plastic bag.

Step 10: Pipe the mixture in the shape of birds’ nests onto the oven tray. Make sure your meringues all have approximately the same height. 

Step 11: Put the oven tray in the oven. Set the timer to 45 minutes.

Clean and tidy the kitchen.

Step 12: When the timer goes off, check whether the meringues are completely dry on the outside. They should have the same colour as when you put them in the oven. 

Step 13: Switch off the oven, open the oven door a bit and leave the merengues in the oven to completely dry. When they sound “hollow” when you knock on them, they’re ready.

Step 14: Place your easter eggs or fruit into the nests.

Step 15: Take a photo and put it on your Facebook or Instagram feed. Tag @kidscookingchallenge and I will add your photo in one of my videos! 

Tip

• When you put fruit into the nests, eat this treat within 2 hours. The juice of the fruit makes the meringues go soggy.