Meringues.

Cross post Amber22...! I'm a slow typist.....

Just caster sugar and egg white in my meringues. I usually make individual blobs and cook them for about two hours in a very slow oven. They always come out chewy in the middle which I like.

At Christmas I sprinkle a bit of demerara sugar over before baking (looks pretty), and then serve them with cream whipped up with some very strong instant coffee solution and a couple of measures of whisky. There are never any leftovers!

weigh the egg whites and use the same weight of caster sugar. Eggs come in different sizes and i like the extra large ones.
Most boughtt eggs are already a few days old.

I used to make meringues years ago, with no problems. They were chewy in the middle, just the way I like them. I changed my oven and now they never turn out well.
I did read that you have to make sure your bowl is grease free. I don't mean dirty! Just that there is no trace of previous baking ingredients.
Thanks for the microwave recipe. I think I will give it a go.

Welshwife I've cooked many sponge puddings in the microwave and they've always been lovely. Depending on the size of course, they only take about four minutes. Try cooking for a shorter time, not forgetting that it carries on cooking after you remove it from the microwave. I love using it for sponge puddings. Sorry, I don't mean to tell you how to cook! Just that my experience has been good.

That's fine peasbloosom. - the sponge was fine to eat - which we did when it came out of the microwave - lovely and light etc but there was a small piece left and that is the bit which went very hard in a short time. I just would not use a microwave enough - I only really used it to start off jacket potatoes if I was short of time! - just not worth it for me.

Would you like a chocolate eclair or a meringue?
No, you're no wrang, I'll have an eclair

(Glaswegian joke)