meringue

meringue is one of my favourite foods, in every possible version. small star-shaped meringues by themselves, flavoured with lemon peel. triangular meringue discs layered with cocoa buttercream. pavlova, meringue nests with fruit, eton mess, meringue layer cake. tarts covered with meringue. raw unbaked meringue with fruit. it was also one of the first things i made all by myself, when i was a kid, after sponge cake and shortcake cookies and apple cake. 

i had problems with finding a no-fail method and recipe since i had a tough time with meringue collapsing, ‘bleeding’ caramel, too chewy, too soft, breaking while cooling down etc. this particular recipe though was successful for me every time i used it. the meringue dries pretty quickly and is dry and crunchy, just the way i like it. it can be stored in air-tight container for a few weeks. the longest i tried was almost half a year (stored in a tin and forgotten) and they were still as excellent as just baked. 

i made this mini babies with two meringue pieces and coconut jam in between – one of the best combinations by far. only meringue with dulce de leche wins with this beautiful dessert. 




meringue

200 g egg whites
200 g caster sugar
200 g powdered sugar

whip the egg whites, slowly, starting on low speed and gradually increasing the speed – it is important to start slow, aerating the egg whites slowly, so that the texture is more stable and lees likely to collapse during baking / cooling down
when the egg whites are foamy, start slowly adding caster sugar and beat for about 5 minutes so that the sugar is completely dissolved, very firm and glossy
at the end whisk in the powdered sugar with rubber spatula until it’s well mixed
pipe the meringue in desired shapes onto parchment paper
dry at 120C for at least 2 hrs (for small meringues, 3 hrs for bigger ones)
leave to cool down in the oven


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