Hogweed Seed Meringues

Pretty handmade meringues with foraging ingredients

Hogweed Seed Meringues

These meringues converted my friend Sara from a meh about hogweed seeds, to enjoying their perfumed potential. These are a little bit wholesome with a mix of unrefined sugars and are satisfying to my sweet tooth. I like to sandwich two together with whipped cream and enjoy the textures of crispy, chewy, spiced meringue with soft cream.

Find out more about common hogweed seeds and the umbellifer plant family they are part of on my foraging courses or umbellifer section of my blog.

Hand-sculpted meringues spiced with common hogweed seeds

Common hogweed seed meringue recipe

Crispy with a chewy centre, these handmade, hand-sculpted meringues are spiced with the warming, exotic and floral flavour of common hogweed seeds (Heracleum sphondylium),

Makes 18

Ingredients

1-2 tbsp hogweed seeds
3 egg whites, room temperature
120 g golden caster sugar
40 g (3 tbsp) dark muscavado sugar

Heat the oven to 275°F/140°C/fan 120°C. Grind the hogweed seeds in a seed grinder or coffee grinder, or chop really, really finely. Sieve the ground seed until you have about 1 heaped teaspoon finely ground spice. In an immaculately clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks before adding the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking it in and repeating until about half the sugar is added. Add the rest of sugar in slightly larger amounts, until it’s all whisked in.

Tray of freshly baked wildly flavoured meringues for a foraging course

Cover a large baking tray (approximately 40 cm by 30 cm) with baking paper and taking 1 large tablespoon of raw meringue at a time, make blobs of the mixture, well spaced across the papered tray. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes before turning off the oven and allowing to cool completely in the oven before opening the door. Can be left overnight. Serve with whipped cream.

Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Can be frozen for 2-3 months.