Meringue - Sweet and Delicious

Pavlova with Lemon Sorbet

Sweet and low in fat, meringue is a versatile pastry ingredient used both in traditional dessert recipes and in more innovative ones. Most everyone knows meringue as the light, billowy peaks atop a classic lemon meringue pie, but meringue can also be piped with a pastry bag into shapes, baked to form a firm pie shell, and dried to a sweet, crisp cloud to cradle other treats.

Meringue uses just two basic ingredients – ultrafine sugar and egg whites – to make the sweetest and most mouth-watering desserts.

Mastering Meringue

Meringue is loosely defined as a mixture of beaten egg whites and granulated sugar whipped together.

When beaten, egg whites can expand to up to eight times their original volume. Sugar not only adds sweetness, it also stabilizes the egg whites by coating them with sugar so they can be beaten longer and don't dry out as fast. Sugar also decreases the volume and lightness of the meringue, so it is important that the sugar be added gradually, and usually never before the egg whites have been whipped to at least four times their original volume.

The amount of sugar and method used varies depending on the intended purpose of the meringue. Less sugar creates a softer meringue for toppings on cakes or pies; more sugar creates a harder meringue used for piping into shapes.

Blitz Meringue Torte

Using the Right Sugar Can Make the Difference

Meringues can be tricky and using the right sugar can help ensure success, says Baker's Dozen member Carolyn Weil. An ultrafine pure cane sugar, such as our Baker's Sugar™, works best because it dissolves faster and leaves no gritty texture. It will help prevent the egg white and sugar mixture from being lumpy. Depending on your mixing method, it can take up to 10 minutes for regular granulated sugar to blend in and dissolve to form glossy, stiff peaks. Ultrafine Baker's Sugar will blend in faster – usually in only a few minutes.

Weil suggests adding ultrafine Baker's Sugar when the egg whites reach the thick foam stage (just before they form soft peaks). As a rule of thumb, it's better to add sugar earlier rather than later and to underwhip rather than overwhip your whites. Overwhipped meringues will be dry and gritty looking; using an ultrafine Baker's Sugar that blends quickly will keep you from overbeating.

Sweet Facts

• The more sugar in a meringue, the drier and stiffer the meringue will be.

• It is believed that an Italian baker named Gasparini from the Swiss town of Meiringen created meringue.

• Use ultrafine Baker's Sugar for meringues and other baked goods – it dissolves faster than regular granulated sugar.

• Use ultrafine Baker's Sugar to help prevent "weeping" or sogginess. Meringues will weep if there's any undissolved sugar.

• Don't put granulated sugar in a food processor to achieve a finer grain. Pulverized sugar created in a food processor or grinder results in chopped-up sugar crystals that will not perform well.

Lemon Meringue Cake

Egg-White Whipping Stages

• Foamy: Large bubbles, very loose with a cloudy, yellowish liquid developing into bubbles.

• Soft Peaks: Bubbles have tightened into a white foam with a ribbon that folds back into itself. You can pull the whites into a "peak" but they won't hold one.

• Firm Peaks: Glossy, firm and smooth. You can pull whites into a peak that will curl but not stand.

• Stiff Peaks: Glossy and very stiff. Peaks are stiff enough to "cut."

Equipment

• Copper or stainless steel bowl

• Electric mixer

• Rubber spatula

• Candy thermometer

• Double boiler

• Pastry bag for piping or a heavy plastic food-storage bag (Snip off a tiny corner. Make a larger hole in bag if you want a thicker drizzle)

• Chef's kitchen torch (or oven broiler)

Storage

• Meringue pie should be refrigerated in a cake dome.

• Baked meringues should be stored in airtight, moisturefree containers. They can usually keep for a week at room temperature and up to a month in the freezer.

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Meringue Types

Tip of Alaska

A simple uncooked meringue is made by beating egg whites, and adding in sugar until very stiff, shiny peaks form. Due to concerns about possible bacteria in raw eggs, powdered egg whites or pasteurized eggs found in the refrigerated section of your grocery store are recommended.

Italian and Swiss meringues are cooked. French meringue is baked.

Italian meringue is made by slowly beating hot sugar syrup into stiffly beaten egg whites and is used in frostings and atop pies and cakes.

Swiss meringue is made by dissolving sugar and egg whites together over simmering water and then beating in an electric mixer. It is often used as a base for buttercream frostings.

French meringue is made by gradually adding ultrafine sugar to whipped uncooked egg whites until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. The meringue is then piped into shapes and baked. It has a light, crisp texture and is often used as a "nest" to hold fruit or sorbets.

Sweet Fact: You need at least 1-1/2 tablespoons of sugar per egg white to get a stable meringue.

Sweet Fact: French (hard) meringue = 4 tablespoons of sugar per egg white.

Sweet Fact: Italian (soft) meringue = 2 tablespoons of sugar per egg white.

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