Put a little love in your heart!

What a beautiful way to say "I love you"

featured in the book Wedding Days by Alexia Alexiadoy

~Meringue boxes with strawberries & chantilly~

prep time: 1 hour
baking time: 1 hour & 30 minutes + several hours for drying

For the meringues: 1 recipe meringue mixture
4 egg whites, few drops of lemon juice, 1 cup fine sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1. Beat the egg whites with a few drops of lemon juice with an electric mixer, until thick and fluffy. While beating, gradually add half the sugar. Lower the mixer speed. Add the remaining sugar and vanilla and beat for 1 second, just a couple of turns.
2. Draw two 8-inch circles on two sheets of non-stick paper. Spread the paper on two oven grids. Place the meringue mixture in a piping bag with a large nozzle and use to cover the circles on the paper, making spirals from the center outward.
3. Bake the meringues at 180 degrees F for 2 hours, in a fan over. Turn off the heat and let the meringue layers cool inside the oven.

For the filling:
-1 pound ready-made whipped cream (Chantilly)
-1 pound fresh strawberries cleaned and sliced
-strawberry sauce for serving:
4 cups strawberries, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 4 tsps corn-starch, 4 tsps lemon juice, 4 tsps Cognac
*Mix the strawberries, sugar, corn-starch and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Simmer slowly and stir periodically, until the mixture sets and a glossy transparent sauce forms. Remove from the heat. Add and stir in the Cognac.

1. Cut out two pieces of non-stick paper the size of the oven grid. Draw 20 2x2 inch squares on each piece of paper. Spread the paper over the oven grids.
2. Put the meringue mixture in a piping bag and using a small nozzle pipe horizontal and vertical lines to cover the surface of the squares forming lace-type patterns. If you wish, use a larger nozzle and after forming the perimeter of the square draw a small heart in the center of the square. Fill the entire surface of 6 squares of meringue to use as the bases of the boxes.
3. Bake the meringues in a conveyor oven at 200 degrees F for 1 hour & 30 minutes. Switch off the oven and cool the meringues in the oven. Store the meringues in airtight boxes, in a dry place. In dry weather, they will keep for several weeks.

To assemble: Place the compact squares on serving plates and pipe a large rosette of whipped cream over them. Stick the four sides of the box on the cream and fill the boxes with more cream. Garnish with some strawberry slices and serve with spoonfuls of strawberry sauce.