From the recipe collection
Cañonigo (Filipino Floating Meringue with Custard Sauce)
A gently baked meringue sits in caramel syrup and is served with a separately cooked vanilla custard; it is not a sponge cake or a baked egg-yolk flan.
- Prep time
- 35 min + about 3 hr cooling and chilling
- Cook time
- 60–80 min meringue; 8–12 min sauce
- Yield
- One 20 cm round dessert; 8 portions
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Ingredients
Tick ingredients as you prepare.
Method
- Heat the oven to 130°C (110°C fan). Use a solid-based 20 cm round metal pan at least 8 cm deep, not a leaking springform pan, and a larger roasting pan for a water bath. Separate all six eggs carefully, reserving the yolks in the refrigerator for the sauce.
- Cook caramel sugar and water in a small saucepan until light amber, swirling rather than stirring after boiling begins. Pour into the cake pan and tilt carefully with oven gloves to coat the base and lower sides. Let it harden while preparing the meringue.
- Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar in a completely clean grease-free bowl until foamy. Add meringue sugar gradually and beat to glossy firm peaks, not dry clumps. Fold in its vanilla. Spoon into the caramel-lined pan in several layers, smoothing gently to avoid large hidden air pockets.
- Set the pan in the roasting pan on the oven shelf and add hot water around it to about 3 cm deep. Bake for 60–80 minutes until the meringue is set and lightly coloured, with no liquid foam at the centre. Check at least 71°C in the centre. Switch off the oven and rest inside with the door ajar for 15 minutes.
- For the sauce, warm milk until steaming. Whisk the reserved yolks with sauce sugar and salt, then slowly whisk in the hot milk. Return to a clean saucepan over low heat and stir continuously with a spatula until it coats the spoon and reaches 82–84°C. Do not boil. Strain, add sauce vanilla and cool over an ice-water bath, then refrigerate.
- Cool the meringue pan on a rack for about 20 minutes, then loosen the edges and invert carefully onto a deep-rimmed platter that can hold the caramel. Some settling is normal. Refrigerate promptly, within 2 hours of cooking, and chill for at least 2 hours.
- Serve slices with the cold custard sauce spooned around or over them. Keep both components refrigerated at 4°C or below and use within 2 days. Take out only the amount needed for serving rather than displaying the entire egg-based dessert in a warm room.
