Strawberry vacherin

1.Preheat oven to 100°C. Whisk egg whites in a grease-free copper, china or glass bowl until stiff enough to stand in peaks on an upturned whisk. Add 2 tbsp of the sugar, whisk it in for 30 seconds, then sprinkle over remaining sugar and carefully fold in with a large metal spoon or rubber scraper.

2.Fold back the collar of a large piping bag fitted with a plain pipe and spoon meringue into bag, then fold up collar. Squeeze the end of piping bag then pipe 2 plump rounds of meringue in a coil, starting in the centre, onto sheets of baking paper. (As a guide for the coils, I trace out a 23cm round on the curly side of 2 pieces of baking paper using a pencil, then flip over the paper and place on baking sheets – the paper will lie flat – sticking each down with a dot or two of meringue.) There is generally enough mixture to pipe a couple of dozen small meringues as well, which could be used for decoration (see main photograph) or kept for another use.

3.Bake the meringue rounds for 1½ hours (swapping around the oven trays from time to time) or until the meringues feel crisp and will easily peel off the paper. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues to dry for a further hour (the mini meringues may cook through in 1 hour; remove them to a cake rack to cool and store airtight).

4.When ready to serve, soften the ice cream in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Transfer it to a large bowl. Hull and slice the strawberries and put them in a smaller bowl. Squash them a little more with a fork. Mix strawberries through softened ice cream. Put one of the meringue rounds on a large plate and spoon on the ice cream. Put the top meringue in place and dust with icing sugar. Serve immediately, cutting into slices with a serrated knife.