How to make meringue at home?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

If you don't know how to make meringue yet, we'll tell you! A detailed description of the dessert, cooking features and recipes, as well as tips on how to diversify sweet food - all this awaits you in our article!

Description

Protein meringue is a delicate crunchy dessert that looks more like candy. When biting, the pieces melt in your mouth, leaving behind a sugary-vanilla flavor. There are meringue sweets and meringue cakes. Both are based on egg whites and sugar, but are baked in different shapes.

Additional flavoring or aromatic substances are added to the protein dough:

• Food synthetic or natural fruit and berry colors;
• spices for sweet dishes;
• ground nuts or seeds;
• coffee or cocoa powder.

Cooking Features

In order to learn how to make meringue correctly, read the features of preparing this type of dessert:

• take only cold egg whites;
• do not use glass or enameled bowls for whipping, this is an important rule - after all, with increased rotation of the whisk with a mixer, a piececontainers can break off and spoil the dessert dough;
• whisk only in a clean and dry container;
• if you take sweet powder instead of sugar, its grains will dissolve faster in proteins, and the consistency of the mass will be softer and more uniform;
• add acid (citric acid or fresh citrus juice) to still liquid proteins - so the mass will become snow-white and appetizing;
• when whipping proteins with a mixer or blender, first use the first whisk speed, when the mass thickens, add the speed to the second, third and, if necessary, fourth;
• if you plan to add something to the protein dough when whipping, reduce the mixer speed to the first;
• what to do if the meringue does not whip: add a pinch of ordinary table s alt to the proteins.

Meringue recipe: classic version

What ingredients are needed:

• chicken egg whites - 4 pcs;
• sugar - 300 g;
• vanillin powder - a couple of pinches;
• citric acid - a couple of pinches (or 1 tsp lemon juice).

How to make meringue at home? More on that later.

Mix chilled proteins in a large cup with vanilla and citric acid.

Start beating egg whites on mixer speed 1. When the mass becomes a little thicker and whiter, pour sugar into the proteins in a thin stream. Whisk at the same time hold in the opposite edge of the container. Otherwise, the sugar will spread all over the kitchen.

Next, continue beating at high speed until a thick, stablemasses. It's easy to check it out. Turn off the mixer and lift the whisk from the protein mixture - it should not fall off and should be quite thick (see photo below).

Put this foamy dough into a pastry bag and place on a baking sheet in small chunks.

Send to bake in the oven at a standard protein dough temperature of 170°C. In a couple of minutes, the products will be ready. But the baking time largely depends on the mass of one candy - large ones take longer to bake.

You learned how to make meringues in the oven. Now let's get acquainted with how you can diversify the classic version of the preparation of a sweet dessert.

Colorful meringue - what's the secret?

There is no secret at all! Just add paint! Food synthetic or natural. They are added when whipping proteins.

Interestingly, if you immediately introduce a dye into liquid egg whites, then the finished dough will turn out to be a homogeneous certain color or shade. But if you add at the end, when the mass is already like whipped snow-white peaks, the color will turn out to be marble, not uniform. Here's how to make meringues in different textures and colors.

Meringue paints

To make natural colored beringes, use natural dyes. In contact with egg white:

• blueberry juice gives blue color;
• spinach or tarragon syrup - green color;
• strawberry (or red currant) jam or jam - pink andred.

The shade of the finished candies depends on how much dye you add.

Meringue and whipped cream dessert - recipe

What ingredients are needed:

• egg whites - 2 pcs;
• sweet powder - 200 g;
• heavy cream 33% - 100ml;
• nuts (almonds, walnuts or cashews) - 7-8 kernels;
• fresh lemon (or orange) zest - 0.3 tsp;
• kiwi - 1 piece;
• banana - 1 pc.;
• strawberry jam or jam - 3-4 tbsp. l.

Step by step recipe:

1. Peel the nut kernels. If walnuts are taken, fry them, and scald the almonds with boiling water. Then dry and grind the kernels into crumbs. If you take cashews, there is less work with it - you do not need to peel it from the dark skin. Cashews just don't have it.
2. Egg whites mix with half the indicated amount of sugar and all the zest, beat into a strong foam (how to make meringue, see above). Add ground nuts and mix lightly.
3. Place the egg white dough into a plastic bag and cut off the edge at 2-3mm. Pour the mass into fragments on a baking sheet. It is better to cover it with food foil or baking parchment. Send the bezes to the oven for 4-5 minutes at 170-180 ° C. Watch out - ready-made sweets should be ruddy. Then take them out and cool at room temperature.
4. In the meantime, mix the cream with the remaining sugar and beat until stiff.
5. Peel the fruit and cut into thin slices or cubes as you like.
6. It's time to collectdessert - put a layer of meringue in bowls (for this, the baked pieces can be broken or left whole). The next layer is cream. Top with fruit and garnish with strawberry jam like syrup.

There may be another design option - see photo above.

Meringue Cake: Easy Recipe

What ingredients are needed:

• butter - 150 g;
• sugar - 150 g;
• 2 whole eggs;
• baking powder - 0.5 tsp;
• s alt - a couple of pinches;
• wheat flour (high quality) - 400 g;
• egg whites - 2 pcs;
• powdered sugar - 150 g;
• vanilla extract - 1 drop;
• citric acid - pinch;
• lemon jam - 150g

How to make meringue at home: recipe

1. Start by putting lemon jam on a plate. It's better for him to be at room temperature. The recipe calls for a finished product, but you can make your own with the juice of 2-3 lemons and one cup of sugar.
2. Mix soft butter well with sugar, a pinch of s alt and eggs. Stir in the baking powder and flour into this mixture. The dough should be elastic and soft, but thick. Roll out to the diameter of the baking dish. Cover it with parchment and place the dough. Form a border-edge. If the pastry is out of shape, cut it off.
3. Send the dough to the oven at 200 ° C until golden brown. Since the dough layer is thin, it will not bake for long.
4. You already know how to make meringue - we looked at the recipehigher. Therefore, we will focus on the fact that for its preparation we will take 150 g of powdered sugar, a pinch of s alt, two proteins, vanilla extract and citric acid.
5. So, do not pull out the baked cake from the mold. Lay lemon jam on the cake - spread evenly over the entire bottom surface.
6. Then spread the protein dough over the jam - also smooth with a spatula or spoon.
7. Place the cake in the oven at 170-180°C for 10-13 minutes. The shortcrust pastry is already ready, so we are waiting for the meringue to bake.

Dough for the cake in such a cake can also be used puff - homemade or store-bought. The recipe is given for a large voluminous cake, but if you wish, instead of a wide form, take small molds for baskets - in them the dessert will be portioned for each family member or invited guest.

Additional ingredients: pros and cons

How to make meringue varied, original and interesting? Add extra ingredients! They can be:

• a drop of rum, liqueur or dry white table wine - as an aromatic component of a dessert (do not use cognac - it will give a stable gray color to the protein dough, it will not be possible to correct the situation);
• confectionery topping on ready-made sweets - beautiful and appetizing (especially for children);
• ground or chopped nuts for decoration;

• small pieces of candied fruits at the end of mixing the proteins - the meringue will have multi-colored inclusions inside;
• spices and seasonings as additional components of protein dough(together with citric acid, add cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla);
• dry herbs are also used - mint, oregano, basil, tarragon, dessert sorrel or spinach are suitable for meringue.

As you can see, you can make your own meringue without much effort. Bon appetit!