Receta Prinjolata

Prinjolata is an assembly of cake or biscuits, topped with meringue and decorated with chocolate and pine nuts, hence the name Prinjolata (of pine nuts).



The Cream:
150 icing sugar;
100g margarine;
150ml double cream;
1 tsp orange essence;
500g roughly broken biscuits, sponge or baked short crust pastry.

Decoration:
2 egg whites;
200g sugar;


Start making the cream by beating the sugar and butter together. Once you have a smooth and light texture, add the essence and cream.

Now in a bowl place your broken biscuits or cake and add the cream a little at a time mixing with your hands or wooden spoon. Once the biscuits stick together stop adding cream.

Place the mixture in your presentation plate or bowl and pile them up into a small pyramid pressing together so that the biscuits stick. It is very important not to add too much cream otherwise the cake mixture will be too soft to stand upright.

Next prepare the meringue for the outer coating. The original Prinjolata used to be made with an Italian meringue, but the standard way of preparing a meringue is also good.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Next add the sugar in 3 parts whisking as you add. Add the essence and liquor and beat until hard peaks are formed and the meringue holds its shape.

Cover the pyramid with the meringue and dot with the glace cherries and pine nuts. Finally drizzle the melted chocolate all over the Prinjolata.