Suspiro a la Limeña

Suspiro a la Limeña translates to "the sigh of the Lima woman". Sometimes you will see it as Suspiro Limeño (“sigh of Lima”) as well. In either case it's a dessert that will leave you breathless. The bottom part consists of a sweet "dulce de leche"-like cream with vanilla seeds. Topped with a port wine infused Italian meringue. Traditionally, sprinkled with cinnamon. Our recipe serves eight people, and also suggests two different ways to finish off the dessert.

Ingredients

For the Dulce de Leche cream

2 cans of Viking milk (or other brand of unsweetened condensed milk, e.g. Rainbow)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod
1 tsp cinnamon

For the port wine infused Italian meringue

200g + 40g sugar
4 egg whites (160g)
1dl port wine
Equipment: Candy thermometer (we bought ours at Traktøren for NOK 129)

This is how you crack it down

Split the egg yolks and whites making sure absolutely no yolk gets into the white. Leave it out to get to room temperature.

Start with the Dulce de Leche cream for the bottom part of the dessert. Warm the Viking milk and sweetened condensed milk in a pot. Add the cinnamon, vanilla seeds and the scraped vanilla pods. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and gets darker brown in color (could take 20 minutes or more). Take out and throw away the vanilla pods. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. Whisk the egg yolks together, and add them to the mixture while whisking heavily. Return the pot to the heat for 4 minutes while you stir constantly. The mixture should now thicken significantly. Take it easy on low heat, but increase heat if it doesn't thicken on medium-low. Pour the thickened mixture into eight serving glasses of your choice. Let it cool down to room temperature, then set in the fridge for at least another 30 minutes or until serving.

Now make the Italian meringue while the cream is cooling. Italian meringue can be tricky, and requires exact measurements and precise execution. Thanks to Hobbykokken for great tips about this (Norwegian link). Warm the 200g of sugar and port wine in a pot. You will need a candy thermometer which can tell you when the mixture reaches 120 degrees C (248 degrees F). While this mixture is boiling, in a kitchen machine with a clean metal bowl, whisk together the egg whites with the 40g of sugar. Whisk until you have soft peaks on your meringue. When the port wine sugar syrup is 120 degrees you pour it into the outer edge of your soft meringue in a thin stream, making sure it doesn't hit your whip. Continue whisking for 15 minutes until the meringue has cooled and got it's soft ice consistency.

Fill a pastry bag with meringue and make nice swirls or other cool shapes on top of the cooled cream. Dust with cinnamon for a traditional Suspiro. When serving this at Smalhans we also sprinkled purple Peruvian corn powder over for some extra crunch and nice colors. You can burn the meringue slightly if you prefer.