Delicate, airy, melting in the mouth … meringue, or as they are also called meringues. We learn how to cook them at home on our own, and reveal all the subtleties of the French culinary art.
Recipe content:
- Ingredients
- Step by step cooking
- Video recipe
French meringue cake can be tender and melting in the mouth, brittle and crumbly, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. One cake can be made from one protein mass in different ways. It seems to many housewives that since there are few ingredients in meringue, it is very simple to prepare it. But this dessert is capricious and sometimes behaves very unpredictably. And not every culinary specialist knows how to make meringues correctly. Therefore, first you need to master some techniques that will help you get a real French delicacy without flaws.
In the art of confectionery, there are 3 methods of making meringues - Swiss, French, Italian. According to a Swiss recipe, the meringue is made in a water bath. The mass increases in volume several times, becomes elastic and thick. It makes lovely cookies and fancy cream cake designs. The French prepare protein mass by whipping proteins with a pinch of salt, and gradually adding powdered sugar in small portions. Whisk the whites until they keep their shape perfectly. French meringues turn out to be delicate and airy. Italians pour hot and thick sugar syrup into the protein mass instead of sugar in a thin stream, while they do not stop whipping. The hot syrup makes the cream custard. They are stuffed with tubes, eclairs and coated with cakes. The cream mixes well with butter.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 270 kcal.
- Servings - 15
- Cooking time - 10 minutes - whipping the cream, 1-1, 5 hours - baking
Ingredients:
- Egg whites - 3 pcs.
- Sugar - 3 tablespoons (it is better to use icing sugar)
Cooking meringue
1. Break warm eggs, the temperature of which is 22 ° C. Separate the yolks from the proteins. Place the egg whites in a clean, dry and fat-free mixing bowl.
You can also use cold proteins, they whip faster, but the mass turns out to be less voluminous, much denser and less stable during baking. Warm proteins give a lush air mass with a stable relief, as a result of which the products are well baked, rise in the oven and keep their shape.
2. Yolks are not required in this recipe. Therefore, wrap them with cling film, as shown in the photo, so that there is no oxygen access, and send them to the refrigerator. With this storage, they can lie up to 3 days.
3. Begin to beat the whites with a mixer at a slow speed so that the mass is saturated with oxygen. When a white foam with bubbles appears, but it is not yet airy, start adding sugar little by little, 1 tsp each. at regular intervals. In this case, do not stop the whipping process, but set the speed to maximum.
I recommend using powdered sugar instead of sugar. The finer the grains, the better the protein mass will be whipped, it will turn out to be much lighter and softer. And if the sugar does not completely dissolve, then it will grind on the teeth when tasting the dessert.
4. Whisk the whites into a tight, firm, white, airy mass.
5. With a tablespoon or using a pastry bag, place the protein dough on a baking sheet.
6. Send the tray into an oven heated to 100-120 ° C for 1-1.5 hours. Dry the meringues until creamy and crisp. If you prefer softer and more delicate meringues, then bake them at 150 ° C until a light yellow hue. You can also bake the dessert for 5 minutes at 200 ° C, then turn the heat down to 100 ° C and cook for another half hour.
Do not open the oven when baking, otherwise the meringue will fall off and become cakes. Check readiness after cooling down, because a warm cake inside will feel damp. Keep them at room temperature as in the refrigerator, they will damp.
See also the video recipe on how to cook meringue (the program "Everything will be delicious / Everything will be fine" Issue 26 2014-25-01).
