Composition and useful properties of meringue. How is a delicacy eaten, what are the recipes with its participation? Are there any contraindications to the use of dessert for adults and children?
Merengi is a French dessert made from egg whites whipped with sugar. It is eaten as a complete product, and meringues can also be used to prepare other desserts and decorate them. The product is rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements useful for the human body.
Composition and calorie content of meringue
The standard composition of meringue includes a limited number of ingredients - proteins and sugar. The listed products are whipped (at this stage they can be called meringues) and placed in the oven for baking until fully cooked. This delicacy acquires a crispy structure and a snow-white color. Both adults and children love sweetness.
Many manufacturers prefer to make adjustments to the standard meringue recipe, replacing some of the ingredients in the product or expanding their list. So, salt, food colors, vanillin can be added to the dough, and sugar can be replaced with sugar syrup.
The calorie content of meringue per 100 g is 440 kcal, of which:
- Proteins - 2, 6 g;
- Fats - 20, 8 g;
- Carbohydrates - 60.5 g;
- Ash - 0.3 g;
- Water - 15, 8 g.
Vitamins per 100 g of product:
- Vitamin PP - 0.5 mg;
- Vitamin B2 - 0.14 mg;
- Vitamin B1 - 0.01 mg;
- Vitamin E - 0.3 mg;
- Beta carotene - 77 mg;
- Vitamin A - 123 mg
Micro and macro elements in 100 g of the product:
- Iron, Fe - 0.4 mg;
- Phosphorus, P - 29 mg;
- Sodium, Na - 44 mg;
- Magnesium, Mg - 4 mg;
- Calcium, Ca - 25 mg;
- Potassium, K - 55 mg.
On a note! One medium-sized meringue weighs 130 g.
Useful properties of meringue
Most of the sweet desserts that you can buy at the grocery or candy store are harmful to human health, clog the body with toxins, cholesterol and contribute to uncontrolled weight gain. In the case of meringues, everything is exactly the opposite - sweetness has a beneficial effect on both the physical and emotional state of a person.
Benefits of meringue:
- Stimulates brain activity due to the presence of a huge amount of niacin in egg white.
- Promotes the elimination of poisons and toxins from the liver, improves memory - such an effect on the human body is provided by choline, which is more than contained in a crispy dessert.
- Improves mood - the dessert contains a lot of granulated sugar, which contributes to the production of serotonin in the body, the hormone of joy and happiness.
- It lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood and thereby optimizes the work of the cardiovascular system - numerous nutrients of the product (vitamins, amino acids, minerals) are involved in this process.
Interesting! The name of the delicacy is identical with the name of the Latin American dance, the movements of which resemble the movement of a mixer or a whisk whipping proteins.
Contraindications and harm of meringue
In many sources on the topic of health, it is said that meringues are harmful to the figure. At first glance, it may seem that the sweet contains a lot of cholesterol and fat, because it is made from high-calorie eggs. But experts assure consumers the opposite: cholesterol and other substances that contribute to weight gain are contained in the yolk, and only protein is used to make meringue. That is why nutritionists are in no hurry to prohibit crunchy dessert for people who are struggling with excess weight. It is enough to use the delicacy in moderation, and it will not turn into extra pounds.
Dentists say about the dangers of meringue, experts do not recommend getting carried away with eating dessert for children who have not yet strengthened their tooth enamel. Eating sweets with a lot of sugar can lead to tooth decay.
Due to the content of a large amount of sugar, meringues are contraindicated for use by diabetics and people with impaired carbon metabolism.
How to prepare meringues?
Are you curious about how to make meringues at home? The process of making sweets is quite simple and does not require any special skills from the chef. All you need is 15-20 minutes of free time, a whisk and cooking inspiration!
A simple step-by-step meringue recipe:
- Whisk 4 chilled whites with a pinch of salt and 1 tsp until a dense foam. vanilla extract.
- Add to the resulting mass 240 g of icing sugar and 2 tsp. white wine vinegar. It is important to add the listed ingredients to the proteins gradually, without stopping the whipping process. You can use the vanilla or raspberry equivalent instead of wine vinegar.
- Put the prepared mass on a baking sheet, previously covered with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon to lay out the meringues.
- Place the baking sheet in a preheated oven.
- Bake the dessert for at least 1.5-2 hours.
Advice from a professional chef on how to make your meringue lush without any extra effort
To beat the eggs into a thick foam faster and better, the room should be warm and dry, and the humidity level should be at the minimum level. For whipping, it is recommended to use not an electric mixer, but a hand whisk. In this case, the movements should be scooping: it is important to scoop up the maximum volume of air with a whisk so that the protein foam is filled with air bubbles, then it will turn out to be as lush as possible. For this style of whipping meringue, a spiral whisk is suitable.
Use only fresh icing sugar to prepare the treat. If you use a stale product, meringues may not work, because powdered sugar tends to absorb moisture.
Store the finished meringues in a tightly closed container, but not in the refrigerator. Otherwise, the dessert will become damp and not crunchy.
Meringue recipes
If you have a desire to please yourself and your loved ones with an original dessert, make it from meringues at home. Get ready for the fact that preparing gourmet desserts will take you a lot of time, but the result will fully justify the effort!
We present to your attention the TOP-3 of the most original meringue desserts:
- Dessert with berries, mascarpone and meringue … Rinse, dry and cut into quarters 300 g strawberries and 200 g blueberries and raspberries. Add 2 tbsp to the ingredients. l. sugar and 2 tsp. lemon juice. Leave the resulting mixture to infuse for half an hour. Whisk 120 g mascarpone cheese in a separate bowl. In another plate, whisk half a cup of low-fat cream with 2 tbsp. l. granulated sugar and a pinch of cinnamon. Then combine the mascarpone with the cream and stir. Put the infused berries on dessert plates. To do this, it is better to use a large spoon with holes so that excess liquid does not get into the dessert. Place mascarpone on top of the berries and garnish with crumbled meringues (4 will be enough).
- Simplified Mont Blanc … Prepare to use baking rings to make this dessert. In a large bowl, mix 250 g of wheat flour, 125 g of butter, 50 g of powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Add 2 egg yolks to the resulting mass and knead the dough. Leave it to cool in the refrigerator for 45 minutes. Roll out the chilled dough so that a cake thickness of 3 mm is obtained. Cut out 10 cm circles from the dough. Place them in the baking rings, carefully cutting off the remaining edges of the dough. In a separate bowl, start preparing the vanilla cream. To do this, mix 50 g of almond flour, 50 g of icing sugar, 35 g of soft butter, 3 g of cornstarch, a pinch of vanilla and 1 1/2 chicken egg. Beat the listed ingredients with a whisk and place on prepared dough sheets. Bake the dessert for 14-16 minutes, until the dough is done. Decorate the cooled treat with orange confiture and meringues.
- Diet ice cream … In a separate saucepan, mix 200 ml of milk and 450 g of cream (preferably a product with 20% fat content). Heat the milk mixture until boiling and immediately remove from the stove. In a separate bowl, beat 3/4 tbsp until frothy. granulated sugar with 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Add hot milk to the eggs. Remember to stir the eggs constantly during this process, keeping the whisk in an upright position. If you change the whipping trajectory, air bubbles may appear in the dessert. Heat the resulting mixture on the stove and keep on fire without boiling until the mass thickens. Stir the future dessert constantly with a wooden spatula. When the cream is similar in consistency to liquid sour cream, remove it from the stove and, stirring constantly, cool in a water bath (40 minutes). After the water bath, the pan with the treat should be covered with a tight lid and placed in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours. In the meantime, get busy making berry sauces - raspberry and blackberry. Pass through a sieve 90 g of raspberries, crushed with 10 g of sugar and 1 tsp. lemon juice. Do the same with 90 g of blackberries. Cool the resulting sauces. Prepare 2 pcs. meringues - grind them with your hands and heat in the oven (no longer than 5 minutes). It's time to get your ice cream out of the fridge. Scroll it in an ice cream freezer for 40 minutes and pour into containers so that each mold is half full. Pour the strawberry and blackberry sauces over the ice cream and mix all the ingredients with a thin wooden stick, drawing an infinity sign (you can use the opposite end of a wooden spatula). Sprinkle with meringues and any fresh berries you like. Fill containers with leftover ice cream. Place the molds in the freezer for 4 hours.
Interesting facts about meringues
The definition of "meringue" is literally translated from French as "kiss". However, historians suggest that this word was borrowed by the French from the German language, in which it denoted the name of a small town in Switzerland - Meiringen. It was in this city that the first meringue dessert recipe was invented (18th century).
Culinary experts still like to tell the circumstances under which the chef Gasparini invented a crispy dessert, because this story is quite funny. One day, the chef was burdened with personal reflections while cooking and did not notice how he whipped the whites until they were tough. Gasparini was surprised at the result of his work, but did not send the spoiled proteins to the trash can. A professional in his field loved to experiment, so he decided to bake the protein mass in the oven. This is how the inhabitants of a small town, and then the whole world, learned about the existence of a unique delicacy.
Historians are quick to note that the cake prepared by Gasparini was called a different word from meringue. The dessert got its modern name thanks to the chef François Massialo. Some historians claim that the specialist invented the meringue recipe on his own so as not to waste the egg whites, which were often left unclaimed in his kitchen after cooking. However, skeptics are quick to point out that Massialo could have spied the cake recipe from a Swiss colleague.
Another interesting fact about merengue: the largest treat was made in 1985 in Switzerland. To bake a giant dessert, the cooks needed 120 kg of sugar and 2,500 chicken eggs!
How to cook meringues - watch the video:
Merengi is one of the few sweets that benefits human health. Even overweight people can eat this crispy treat in reasonable quantities. The product is rich in carbohydrates and proteins. To feel the maximum healing effect of this dessert, you should eat mainly homemade meringues, because this way you can independently control the proportions of sugar and other ingredients that make up the delicacy.
