Vacherin

vacherin is a French dessert consisting of an elaborately decorated meringue shell filled with whipped cream, fruit, ice cream, or sorbet. It is not to be confused with the cow’s milk cheese of the same name that is made in the French and Swiss Alps.

The sweet vacherin is formed by piping a meringue base onto a baking sheet and then building the circumference with rings of meringue, which are then baked at low heat for several hours, until the meringue becomes solid and no moisture is left. See meringue. A variation, vacherin avec couronne en pâte d’amandes, uses rounds of lightly baked almond paste instead of meringue.