What to do with leftover egg whites? Laskonky! Traditional meringue sandwiches glued together with luscious Caramel & Walnut Cream. Slovak version of a famous Pavlova meringue is widely baked in almost every household during Christmas. Well, even October is a great time to make Laskonky, especially if you happen to have some leftover egg whites that you need to use up quickly. Add some ground walnuts (or almonds, or shredded coconut ) and sugar and you’re ready to bake. The recipe asks only for a couple of ingredients but be prepared – Laskonky will take quite a lot of your time to make (hands-on time takes around ~ 1.5 hours, the rest you’ll just leave Laskonky to bake & dry in the oven). I wrote more on how to bake meringue properly here.

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Cream for Laskonky is usually a buttercream combined with walnuts and what we call pudding – thick cooked vanilla cream. I made my cream with some homemade caramel and a tablespoon of rum for an extra flavor and taste. Feel free to omit the alcohol but it goes great combined with nuts and caramel and gives the meringue a very festive touch. The amount of butter in my cream is less than usual as I was aiming for a much lighter filling. Enjoy and let me know how you liked them.

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INGREDIENTS

Meringue

180g Egg Whites

250g White Sugar

60g Powdered Sugar

150g Walnuts, ground

1 Teaspoon Corn Starch

1 Teaspoon White Vinegar

Pudding

300g Milk, whole

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 Tablespoon Rum

30g Corn Starch

Pinch of Cinnamon

Caramel

100g White Sugar

30g Heavy Cream, hot

Other

150g Butter, unsalted, soften

3 Tablespoons Walnuts, ground

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METHOD

1. Start with a meringue: Start whisking your Egg Whites by themselves (preferably at room temperature) at a lower speed for a minute or two. Increase the speed to medium and start with adding White Sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon and keep whisking the mixture after each addition until all sugar is properly dissolved. This might take around 10 minutes and egg whites must be fluffy and soft peaks must form at this point

2. Once all white sugar is whisked in, add all Powdered Sugar at once and whisk for another minute. Then whisk in Cornstarch dissolved in Vinegar and turn the mixer off. Manually mix in your ground Walnuts into the meringue and pipe or, using the tablespoon, spread the meringue on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper leaving some space in between each piece of Laskonka. The shape should be oval or round and they should be pretty thin, around 1 cm or 1/3″. Bake your Laskonky at 240°F/120 °C for around 40 minutes or until completely dry. The turn off the oven, open it and leave Laskonky to dry out and cool down completely

3. Caramel: To make caramel, start dissolving Sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan on a low temperature. Watch your sugar as it melts into a caramel to make sure it’s not burning. Once metled mix in immediately hot Heavy Cream (it’s very important for heavy cream to be hot as we want to avoid a temperature shock) and be careful as the caramel starts to simmer and bubble rapidly. Keep mixing to make sure that all cream is well incorporated and cook for another minute. Now take it off the heat and stir in a pinch of Salt. Let it cool down while you’re preparing your pudding

4. Pudding: To make a pudding, heat up 250g of Milk in a small saucepan and combine rest 50g of Milk with a teaspoon of Vanilla Extract, 30g of Corn Starch and a pinch of Cinnamon. Once the milk boils, pour in cornstarch mixture and keep mixing and whisking until the pudding is very thick (might take ~ 2 minutes). Pour a tablespoon of rum into a hot & thick pudding and whisk vigorously. Add 3 tablespoons of ground Walnuts and whisk again. Now pour in warm caramel and whisk the whole mixture with a hand whisk until well incorporated. Let the cream to cool down first at room temperature then transfer to the fridge

5. Once the cream is completely cold, whisk in unsalted Butter using a standing mixer (butter must be softened) at a higher speed. the ream should be nice and silky with no pudding lumps inside. Pipe or spread the cream on a crispy walnut meringue and cover with another meringue. Enjoy immediately or store in a cool place for up to three days. The meringue will eventually absorb moisture from the cream so if you’re making it in advace it might turn rather moist and soft than crisp and crunchy. I love it both ways, anyways ❤ Enjoy

Dobrú chuť,
Lenka