Nocciolata Swirl Meringues

These Nocciolata swirl meringues are made with a better quality chocolate hazelnut spread that doesn’t have palm oil or dairy. They are crunchy outside, a little chewy inside and just the right amount of sweet. 

According to Google, "Nocciolata is made with organic ingredients, including sunflower oil and cocoa butter, and is free of palm oil, artificial flavors, and preservatives, making it a more natural option. Nutella, on the other hand, includes palm oil, modified palm oil, and other ingredients like soy lecithin and vanillin." 

A couple of years ago, I was looking for a vegan friendly chocolate hazelnut spread to use in a recipe – I can’t remember what I wanted to make – and came across Nocciolata online. Unfortunately, none of the shops near me carried it and shipping was cost prohibitive so I was forced to abandon the project.

Fast forward to last summer when we were traveling in France and there it was! Of course, I had to buy a couple of jars. It’s lovely stuff, darker chocolate than Nutella and not overly sweet. I wish I could remember why I wanted it! 

It was perfect swirled through these baked meringues.

Nocciolata Swirl Meringues

If you can’t find Nocciolata, substitute your favorite chocolate hazelnut spread to make these.  I used golden caster sugar but normal granulated sugar will work fine. 

Ingredients

1/4 cup or 75g Nocciolata

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch cream of tartar

Pinch fine sea salt

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon or 112g sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 300°F or 149°C and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with baking parchment. Tip: Put a little dab of oil in the middle and under each corner to help hold it in place. 

Measure the Nocciolata into a ramekin and then put the ramekin in a bowl with hot water, to loosen it slightly. 

Put the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until they are completely foamy. 

Add the cream of tartar and the salt and continue whipping at medium-high speed until, when you lift the whisk attachment, soft peaks form. This should take a few minutes.

Once you have reached the soft peak stage, increase the speed to high and begin adding the sugar a tablespoon at a time (this should take a few minutes). 

Once all the sugar is in, the meringue should be very thick and when you left the whisk firm peaks should remain and it will be glossy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and drop in all the Nocciolata. 

With a rubber spatula, gently fold it into the meringue three or four times. You’re aiming for a swirled effect so try not to over mix. 

Scoop up a heaping tablespoon of meringue then use another tablespoon to scrape off and drop the meringue onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Continue until you’ve used all of the mixture and made about 14 meringues.

Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, immediately lower the heat to 200°F or 94°C. Bake for 1 hour, turning the baking sheet around halfway through. 

After 1 hour, turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for a few hours as the oven cools. Remove from the oven and store in an airtight container. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 14th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter N. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the N recipes below:

• Food Lust People Love: Nocciolata Swirl Meringues 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Olya Naralachi Karanji / Fresh Coconut Nevries 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: New England Iced Tea 
• Blogghetti: Zucchini Nut Bread
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Crispy Noodle Salad 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Singapore Noodles 
• A Messy Kitchen: Frozen Negroni
• Culinary Cam: White Nectarine-Lime Jam 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Nut-Free Basil Pesto Chunky Tomato Sauce 
• Magical Ingredients: Nutella Neufchatel Dip 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Sweet and Spicy Cashews

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake 

D. Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam 

E. Whipped Espresso Cream 

F. Fish Sauce Roasted Chicken 

G. Extra Herby Gremolata 

H. Smoked Herring Spread 

I.  Fresh Cherry Ice Cream 

J. Small Batch Strawberry Jam 

K. Kiwi Tomato Feta Salad 

L. Lobster Butter 

M. Milk-Roasted Chicken 

N. Nocciolata Swirl Meringues – this post! 

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Cheater Pain aux Raisins #BreadBakers

Use ready-made puff pastry instead of the traditional laminated yeast dough to make these cheater pain aux raisins. They are more-ish and delicious! 

I’d have called these easy but I did have to make the pastry cream filling and even the apricot jam for the glaze since my local supermarket didn't have any. If you can somehow buy both of those, these would be a cinch! If you do need to make the pastry cream, I have a quick and easy recipe you can follow. Link in the ingredients list below. 

Years ago, back when our girls were young, we were living in Paris and there were many days when we needed a pre- or post-nap outing to break up the day. We'd walk down to the boulangerie on the far corner of our block. Then on to the nearby park to eat our snacks. As I mentioned before in my rosemary orange boule post, our younger daughter always chose a pain aux raisins for her treat. Nowadays she doesn't want raisins in things! Go figure.

Cheater Pain aux Raisins

For the puff pastry, I used the one from Trader Joe’s (18 oz, sadly seasonal but I alway buy extra to store in my freezer) because it is made with butter rather than shortening but if you can’t find that, the Pepperidge Farm (17 oz) brand would work too. Both brands come in a box with two sheets. 

Ingredients for 8

For pain aux raisins:

2 sheets puff pastry (see note above)

1 cup or 265g crème pâtissière aka vanilla pastry cream (This recipe.) 

½ cup or 70g golden raisins

For the egg wash:

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

For the glaze: 

¼ cup or 70g apricot jam (store-bought or homemade)

1 tablespoon water

Method

Soak the raisins for 5 minutes in warm water. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. This also gives you an opportunity to pull off any small stems if you see them. Those tiny bugs on the right? My stem bits. 

Lay one sheet of puff pastry on a cutting board and spread half of the pastry cream evenly on the pastry sheet. Top the pastry with half of the golden raisins. 

Lay the other piece on pastry on top. Spread the rest of the pastry cream on top and sprinkle on the rest of the raisins. 

Roll the two pieces of pastry up together, forming a big log. 

Cover the log snuggly in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

During the chilling time, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a large baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Use a sharp knife, unflavored dental floss or some fine fishing line to cut the log into eight even rolls. I used fishing line! Slide it under (you may have to lift the log) to the place you want to cut. Bring both ends up and put one piece under the other like you are starting to tie a shoe. Pull the ends and voilá, a clean cut. 

Transfer the pain aux raisins to your prepared pan and secure the ends with toothpicks. In retrospect, I should have stuck mine in deeper! 

 

Whisk the egg with the milk and brush each roll well with the mixture.

Bake the pastries until the pain aux raisins are golden brown in color, about 30-32 minutes, depending on your oven. If your oven doesn’t heat evenly, turn the pan around halfway through the baking time. 

Right before the pastries come out of the oven, microwave the apricot jam and water for 30 seconds in a small bowl to make a chunky glaze. Mix well.

When the pain aux raisins come out of the oven, brush them with the apricot glaze.

Allow them to slightly cool before eating. The bottoms are lovely and crunchy. I should have take a photo of them! 

The outsides of mine were much flakier than the middles but since I used all butter puff pastry, they were still rich and delicious. Perfect, in fact, with a cup of coffee in the morning or hot tea in the afternoon. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s Bread Baker time! This month our theme is French breads! Many thanks to our host, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the links below. 

• The Wimpy Vegetarian: Black Olive and Herb Fougasse
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Brioche 
• Food Lust People Love: Cheater Pain aux Raisins
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: La Couronne Lyonaise 
• Culinary Cam: Pain au Chocolat
• A Messy Kitchen: Pain Brié 
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Pain de campagne 
• Sneha's Recipe : Sourdough French Bread

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Crème Pâtissière- Vanilla Pastry Cream

Crème pâtissière or vanilla pastry cream is a cooked egg custard thickened with cornstarch in addition to egg. It can be used in a variety of recipes or eaten as is. If you ever watch The Great British Bake Off, they call this creme pat!

This pastry cream is an essential ingredient if you want to make the classic French treat, pain aux raisins. It is spread on the flattened dough which is then rolled up with raisins, sliced into spirals and baked till golden. I’ll be sharing my cheater version using store-bought puff pastry tomorrow.

It is also lovely used to top a pavlova before adding fruit to serve and is the typical filling for profiteroles. Or truly, you can eat it with a spoon.

Crème Pâtissière - Vanilla Pastry Cream

In France bakers would probably use vanilla sugar or vanilla paste in this recipe. If you have real vanilla extract or essence, that works just as nicely. 

Ingredients to make about 1 1/4 cups or 300ml

1 cup or 240ml milk

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch (US) or cornflour (UK)

1 large egg

Pinch fine sea salt 

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

Method

Heat the milk over medium high heat and bring it to a simmer, till it just starts to steam. 

While heating the milk, place the sugar, cornstarch, egg and salt in a bowl. Whisk until you have a thick, smooth mixture. 

Place the bowl with the egg mixture on a towel or napkin (to prevent the bowl from slipping while whisking in the next step), and set aside until the milk just starts to steam. 

Slowly pour the hot milk in a thin stream into the egg mix, WHILE WHISKING CONSTANTLY to temper the egg mix. 

Pour it all back into the saucepan. 

Heat over a medium heat, while whisking vigorously until it starts to thicken. This should take about 1 – 2 minutes depending on the heat of your stove and size of your saucepan. Do not neglect whisking every part of the pan to make sure the mixture isn’t catching and lumps aren’t forming. 

Keep cooking and whisking until it’s really thick and a spoon pulled through the pastry cream leaves a gap that doesn’t refill. 

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla extract until they are completely mixed in.

Pour the pastry cream into a bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface. This is to prevent a skin from forming on top. 

Pop the pastry cream in the refrigerator for a few hours, until completely chilled and set.

Use as needed or eat with a spoon.

Enjoy! 

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Banana Pecan Caramel Sauce

Gooey, sweet and sticky, this banana pecan caramel sauce is perfection over ice cream, brownies or baked apples. Or you can just eat it with a spoon. You won’t get any judgment from me. Seriously, it’s that good. 

I am not a big sweet eater but I do have a fondness for caramel. The caramelization of sugar adds a welcome slight bitterness that I find very appealing and I know I’m not alone in that. Some of the most popular candies in the world have caramel as an element. Think Snickers, Milky Way and Twix to name just three.

As a kid, my movie candy of choice was always a big box of Milk Duds and I loved Sugar Daddys which were basically a solid rectangle of caramel on a stick. Those would pull your fillings out if you weren’t careful! Totally worth the risk. 

If you feel the same way as I do about caramel, you are going to love this sauce. 

Banana Pecan Caramel Sauce

This recipe makes a little more than two cups of sauce. Because of the bananas, I recommend you store any leftovers in a refrigerator, which means it will turn solid but spoon-able. Gently rewarm it back to sauce consistency before using. This recipe is adapted from one on Marsha’s Baking Addiction.

Ingredients

1 cup or 240ml water

2 cups or 400g sugar

1/2 cup or 57g chopped pecans

2 medium bananas (about 180g), pureed until smooth

1/2 cup or 120ml heavy cream, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add the water and sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.

Turn the heat down to medium and allow the mixture to come to a light amber color without stirring. 

Instead, swirl the pan around occasionally to make sure the mixture caramelizes evenly. (This can take a while. Be patient, and don't be tempted to turn up the heat!)

Remove the pan from the heat, and add in the chopped pecans. Stir well.

 Add in the pureed banana. Stir constantly until combined and the bubbling has stopped.

Place back on the heat, and keep stirring until the mixture becomes a deep, rich amber color.

Remove from the heat and gradually pour in the heavy cream, stirring constantly until combined. The sauce might sugar up at this point if your cream isn't room temperature but just keep stirring and all will be well, as the sugar melts again and it turns back into a sauce. 

Take the pot off of the stove and stir in the vanilla.

Pour the caramel into a heat-proof jar and allow to cool completely before using. Serve over ice cream or even spread on toast or pancakes. 

Or eat it with a spoon. 

Again, no judgment from me.

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and my blogger friends and I are celebrating National Banana Lover’s Day, which is today! How will you celebrate? We’ve got a list of great recipes you might like to try. Check them out below: 

• Banana Chip Cookies with Melted Caramel from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Banana Mousse from Culinary Cam
• Banana Pecan Caramel Sauce from Food Lust People Love
• Banana Zucchini Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Chocolate Coated Banana from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Double Chocolate Whole Wheat Banana Bread from Cook with Renu
• Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Pretzel Bites from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Sourdough Banana Appe from Sneha’s Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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