Nici Wickes: Tamarillo and walnut meringue slice

This slice is a classic and so easy to make! The tamarillo jam is a lovely surprise.  

Make 16-20 pieces 

 

Ingredients  

6-8 large tamarillo, halved and flesh scooped and diced  

¼ cup sugar  

120g butter, softened 

1/3 cup caster sugar 

2 large eggs, separated 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 ½ cups flour, sifted 

½ cup walnut meal  

1 tsp baking powder 

½ cup caster sugar 

½ cup desiccated coconut 

 

Method 

1. Make a quick tamarillo jam by simmering fruit with sugar for 15-20 minutes until thickened slightly. Cool.  

2. Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly grease and line sandwich tin. 

3. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy then add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until combined.  Fold in flour, walnut meal and baking powder and stir until it starts to come together. Tumble mixture (it will be clumpy crumbs) into prepared tin and press out evenly. Chill for 10 minutes. 

4. Spread cooled tamarillo jam evenly over chilled base.  

5. Beat the egg whites until foamy then gradually add sugar and beat until sugar is dissolved, mixture is glossy and soft peaks form. Fold in coconut. Spread meringue over the jam.  

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until meringue is light brown and crisped.  

7. Cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares. 

 

Nici's Note 

To avoid blood sugar levels spiking and dropping, it’s best to include some protein when consuming sugar as this has the effect of tempering the absorption of glucose into the blood stream. The walnuts and eggs in this recipe will have this ‘sobering effect’ on the sugar content. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at Me.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
If you're looking for something a bit different, this weeke
hand a little bit of a treat. How cook Nikki
Wicks has a delicious sounding recipe he killed her.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah, more in a Jack.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, it has been my pledge to future Jack
this winter that I'm going to plant a tamarillo tree
because I don't know what it is about this winter,
but I have been loving tamarillo's and it's not the
world's cheapest fruit. Let's be honest.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I'm just gonna say you found somewhere cheap to drive them? No, No,
they're expensive, aren't they. I mean I support you in
grow and trying to grow one. I would have a
good chat with Linda Helen and if I was you
really hard to grow. I tried a couple of times,
and I just they don't love the ones. They're actually

(00:59):
quite temper from men talk of little little Maybe some
of our listeners might have some chips for us.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, they're worth it. Yeah, But anyway, you have come
up with it an even more delicious way to consume tamarillos,
which is perhaps an easier path for the both of us, tamarillo.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
And walnut merengue slice. I mean, I love a slice.
This is kind of like a Louise cake slasher or
catron cake. You know where it's got. You've got those layers.
So first of all, we want to make a little
really simple. It's not really a jam. It's more like
a compost. But I've got six to eight large tamarillo.
You have those and kind of dice the You can
peel them if you want, but I just kind of

(01:38):
scoop as much of it as I can out and
then dice up that flesh, pop that in a little
pot and similar it with about a quarter of a
cup of sugar and it'll just start to thicken up
a little bit. Jack do that for about fifteen minutes,
is quite good. And then put that aside and cool that.
Chuck an Ovan one hundred and eighty. I sent to
always say that before all of my recipes. Occasionally it's higher,
but not very often. And then I make this in

(02:01):
kind of a Swiss rollton. So that's about the size
that you're looking for. We want to make the beautiful
little based this which is beating one hundred and twenty
grams of softened butter together with a thood of a
cup of sugar past sugar I've used in this one
until that's really light and creamy, and then add in
we're using two whole eggs with this recipeed, but we've

(02:21):
separated those, so we're going to add into the base
the two egg yolks, a good one teaspoon or more
of vanilla extract, and we just want to beat all
of that till it's really creamy. Fold in one and
a half cups of flour and also half a cup
of walnut meal. It just gives this a beautiful richness
this slice. And I love the flavor of walnut and

(02:43):
tamaillos together, they just wick it. If you don't have
walnut meal, but after listening to this you want to
make it, and you do have ground almonds, you would
use those as well. That's absolutely fine. A good teaspoon
of baking powder and stir all of that until it
starts to come together, and then tumble the mixed chat.
At this stage it's kind of clumpy, it's kind of crummy.
Tip it into your tin and then press it out

(03:05):
really evenly and chill that for ten minutes. Once that's
been chilled. You can spread your tamor lood jam over that,
and then we make this lovely little light meringue topping.
Beat your egg whites. You've got two of those left
over from the yolks, obviously, beat them till they kind
of foamy. Then gradually add in half a cup of
cast of sugar, maybe a pinch of salt there kind

(03:25):
of helps you at your egg whites sometimes, and bake
the and sorry, and beat that until the sugar is
kind of dissolved. It started to go glossy and they
are kind of soft peaks forming. Fold in half a
cup of coconut coconut and tamarillo jack. Oh my gosh,
they're American marriage made in heaven, and spread and dollop
that over the jam, and then bake it for thirty

(03:45):
to thirty five minutes until the merangue goes kind of
light brown. It's crisped up cool that. I think it's
better cooled. I don't think you want to be eating
this warm. Put it out on a wire rack and
you know, the whole tin, and then cut it into
squares once it's cold, and it is so delicious nice.
A little cup of coffee. Oh my god, it's good.

(04:06):
The tartness of the tamarillos in there.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, that's the thing. The tartness is what makes them exceptional.
But then obviously the sweetness coming through as well. So
I don't know that I have ever cooked with walnut
meal before. I know it's only half a cup, So
you've got you've got one half cups of flour, half
a cup of walnut half a cup of walnut meal.
You know that I love my arm and meal, not
because I'm gluten free or anything, but because I think

(04:28):
it adds a real richness. So how difficult is it
to cook with walnut meal?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Just?

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Can you do? Like for lights?

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Light? For light, take half a cup of walnuts, pop
them through your blender or your food process, and you
want them to kind of go down, not to a
powder obviously, back to about you know, you chop them
finally and it'll make you half a cup of walnuts
will make roughly half a cup of walnut meal. You
can't buy walnutmeal. I think you do have to make it.
So thanks for you know, leading me on to explain that.

(04:59):
So I love it. It's got I mean, walnuts have
got a much more distinct flavor than almond meal really,
so get that really almost almost a bitterness. Again, it's
great with our tamarillo. And what I would say to
anyone listening to Jack who doesn't like tamoralists, because believe
it or not, there are people out there. They are tarts.
They are a bit of stringent once.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
You cook them totally. Yeah, it really.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Rounds out that flavor. So I poached some this week
as well and had them with some custards.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
See that's that's how I would have them too, Like
poach with a bit of custard or like a bit
of ice cream as well. So you've got that, you know,
the tartness offset by the sweetness. I'm into it. So
one last walnut meal question is is it sweet compared
to alm and meal, because you know how almond meal
is quite dry. I just imagine I feel like, I
don't know what it is, but I feel that walnuts
maybe have slightly more moisture in them.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Oh that's interesting. No, not not, I don't think it is. Mean.
I mean, your almond meal is probably quite dry because
it's been taken down to the almond meal agent gone
put in a packet yeah, yeah, almond meal. You're right,
there might be a bit more moistured in, but nothing
to worry about it. She could plump together once you've
blended it. It should be nice and loose and fantastic
and it'll just give this a lovely little flavor. So yeah,

(06:08):
do make it. It's a really good one.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, it sounds extraordinary. Thank you so much, Nicki, you're
really looking forward to making that at home.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yay.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.