Recently I was looking for recipes for “lazy” cakes and many of them had light and crumbly “cookies” in the shape of droplets, or cones with wavy edges. You can buy them now at any confectionery store. But when I realized that these incredibly delicious meringues consist of just sugar and proteins, I decided to make this delicacy myself. Moreover, such a dessert can be stored for quite a long time.
It’s not for nothing that when translated from French, “meringue” means “kiss” - the most delicate airy delicacy simply melts in your mouth! However, although it consists of only two ingredients, you still have to try to ensure that the result pleases you with its shape and taste. Fresh whites must be whipped into a luxurious, elastic foam. And then it must not be baked, but “dried” in the oven for almost an hour and a half at a temperature of only about 100 degrees.
In addition to “Pavlova Cake”, “Kievsky” and “Count Ruins”, sweet fluffy meringues can be used in other desserts, adding nuts, sprinkling with chocolate or topping with your favorite cream. And those with a sweet tooth gobble up these airy crisps just as they are with tea.
By the way, this sweetness is much safer for the figure than full-fledged cakes with fatty creams. The calorie content of meringue is only about 235 kcal per 100 g. Therefore, you can easily pamper yourself with these delicate drops, which will leave a charming sweet aftertaste.
Meringue in the oven, prepared according to a classic recipe
As always, the most successful recipe is a proven classic. After all, many people have experimentally verified the correct ratio of components and developed their own rules for ideal cooking.
And the first secret is the condition of the eggs. Ideal crispy and at the same time very tender products are obtained only from fresh eggs that are no more than 5 days old. The separated protein must be at room temperature.
The second important feature is the whipping tool. Some will say that you can do a good job by hand with a fork, while others prefer a modern blender. However, you can still achieve a strong, dense foam only with a mixer.
Well, the third prerequisite: since eggs do not like any greasy inclusions, all tools, and especially the bowl, must be clean and dry. To be on the safe side, experienced chefs recommend wiping everything with lemon slices, which perfectly degreases everything thanks to its acid.
We will need:
- Egg white – 2 pcs.
- Fine crystalline granulated sugar – 125 gr.
- Fine salt - 1 pinch.
Preparation:
1. Crack clean chicken eggs warmed to room temperature and carefully separate the whites from the yolks. No shell fragments or droplets of yellow “cores” should get into the light mass.
2. For better whipping, add a small pinch of finely ground salt to the whites so that it dissolves as quickly as possible. Turn on the mixer at low speed and bring these ingredients to a beautiful foam.
3. Increasing the whipping speed to maximum, add granulated sugar with a teaspoon “fine rain”. The foam will begin to increase significantly, simultaneously dissolving the sweetness. Continue mixing the ingredients for 5 minutes until nice, stiff white peaks form.
4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment and form neat meringues onto it using a culinary syringe, a spoon or a regular bag with a cut off tip.
Place the puffed pieces in an oven preheated to 100 degrees and “dry” our delicacy for 40-80 minutes, depending on the size of the created products.
As soon as the product acquires a beautiful snow-white hue and becomes quite easy to move away from the parchment paper with a gentle push with a spoon, it is completely ready.
Cool and enjoy!
Let's go to the kitchen
- Prepare a large, convenient container, preferably enameled, always fireproof, and a mixer.
- We start the process by whipping the protein; we will need one hundred and twenty grams of it.
- We continue to work with the mixer until high foam appears, but not until it thickens.
- Next you should add double the amount (about 250 g) of regular white sugar.
- Be sure to add citric acid (about one third of a teaspoon)
- Now we go to the stove, where our “Wet Meringue” will be prepared for decorating the cake.
The easiest way to make meringue in the microwave in 5 minutes
There are times when you want something sweet for tea or coffee, but all the cookies and sweets at home are gone. Or suddenly the guests are already at the very doorstep. Or you urgently need decorations for a cake.
There are many situations, and the quickest answer is to make meringue. And a regular microwave will come to the rescue. The whole process of creating homemade delicacies will take you no more than 5 minutes.
And although airy protein sweets will be slightly different from those dried in the oven, they will still delight you with their speed and taste.
We will need:
- Powdered sugar – 250 gr.
- Fresh chicken egg – 1 pc.
Preparation:
1. To make the consistency of the finished treat more airy and crispy, sift the powdered sugar. You can do this directly into the cup that will hold the treat.
2. Carefully cut a warm raw egg and separate the white from it. Immediately send it to the sifted sugar component and begin grinding with a spoon.
After 5 minutes of effort, you will get a fairly thick “dough” that can be conveniently rolled into balls with your hands or squeezed through the shaped nozzle of a culinary syringe.
3. Cover the surface of a glass dish in the microwave with parchment and place the resulting white lumps on it.
Set the power regulator to 750 watts and bake the products for just a minute. Then leave the pies in the closed oven for another 60 seconds so that they reach the desired condition, and only then carefully, so as not to burn yourself, transfer them to a plate.
A minimum of time was spent, and hot tea and an airy, delicate dessert were already waiting for us on the table.
"Count's Ruins"
Ingredients:
- ready meringue – 250 g;
- condensed milk (not boiled) – 1 can;
- assorted nuts – 2 handfuls;
- butter – 300 g.
Preparation:
- Prepare in advance round miniature “bezeshki” with a sharp top according to the very first recipe. Cool them down.
- For the cream, beat soft butter and condensed milk.
- Chop the peeled nuts randomly.
- When assembling this cake, you just need to pour a heap of meringue onto a large plate. Pour cream over each layer of sweet preparations and sprinkle with nuts.
Before serving for tea, let the “Count's Ruins” cake soak well.
Homemade recipe with 3 proteins and sugar
Quite often there are recipes that use only yolks. What to do with the remaining proteins? Shouldn't we throw them away? Of course not! They are quite suitable for preparing unusually delicious airy cakes. Usually they come out snow-white, but if you add color or increase the temperature in the oven, you can achieve a beautiful creamy color.
Since the dessert turns out to be very light, you only need 3 squirrels to prepare a large bag of tender meringues. It is best to take sugar at the rate of 50-60 grams per egg.
We will need:
- Fresh egg white – 3 pcs.
- Granulated sugar – 165 gr.
Preparation:
1. Pour fresh whites into a deep bowl and you can immediately start beating with a mixer. Bring the mixture to a thick white foam that has increased 3 times and, continuing to operate the kitchen appliance, add granulated sugar one spoon at a time.
2. At maximum speed, you can literally get a fairly thick protein-sugar consistency in just 3-5 minutes, similar to thick sour cream. If you lift the mechanical beaters, you will be left with fairly elastic white peaks. This is exactly what we wanted.
3. Turn on the oven at 100 degrees. Line a baking tray or baking dish with parchment paper. No need to lubricate it with oil!
Transfer the creamy mass into a culinary or regular bag (cut off the tip from it) and squeeze neat pieces of equal size and shape onto the bottom of the prepared container.
4. By this time, the oven has already heated up to the desired temperature. Place a bowl with airy protein droplets in the middle position and leave them there for an hour and a half. The meringues will increase significantly in volume and harden slightly, becoming snow-white cakes.
To prevent them from drying out and losing their beautiful appearance, it is advisable to leave the delicacy to cool inside the oven after turning off the temperature without opening the door.
This will allow the dessert to dry completely and eliminate the viscosity that occurs with slightly underbaked meringues.
5. All that remains is to transfer the fully prepared treats onto a beautiful dish and you can serve them at the table or use them for making cakes and as a decoration for other desserts.
but on the other hand
One of the cheapest natural creams today, according to most confectioners, is “Wet meringue”. Its recipe consists of a minimum of ingredients available to everyone, but even they can be spoiled if used incorrectly. Like any confectionery product, this cream requires a clear sequence of actions, otherwise everything can threaten an unpleasant failure.
So, for example, “Wet meringue” can turn out beautiful, fluffy, light and airy in appearance, but within an hour after decorating the cake it will slide off and spread across the dish. And the reason for such a frequent incident among beginning craftswomen is that they simply did not finish it enough, that is, the cream did not have enough density to maintain a constant stable shape. Another disadvantage of this product is the large amount of sugar in it, which is strictly prohibited to reduce, so as not to get the situation described above.
How to bake meringue cake at home
Although it is believed that you can get the perfect meringue with just regular whipping, there are still classic recipes according to which the process of obtaining a thick consistency of the protein mass should be carried out in a steam bath.
Yes, yes, don't be surprised! There is also a cooking method.
We will need:
- Fresh egg white – 4 pcs.
- Granulated sugar – 240 gr.
Preparation:
1. Place a pot of water on the stove until it boils. Meanwhile, in an enamel cup or saucepan slightly smaller than the first, combine granulated sugar with liquid chicken proteins, previously warmed to room temperature. Mix the ingredients until they combine into a homogeneous mass.
2. Place a container with a sugar-protein mixture over boiling water, thereby creating a kind of water bath. Turn on the mixer at maximum speed and beat the mixture in the upper container for about 5 minutes until dense, stable peaks are obtained.
While whipping, you can optionally add some color or aromatic additive.
3. Remove the cup with the thickened white contents and transfer the creamy mixture into a pastry bag with a shaped tip. Place beautiful curls on a baking sheet pre-lined with parchment, trying to make them the same in shape and size.
4. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees and place the shaped cakes into it. Dry for an hour and a half so that the delicacy is completely “baked” and becomes evenly crispy throughout its entire volume.
Meringue for cake decoration
Quite often, small-sized products with lemon flavor are used to decorate cakes.
These are the famous Swiss meringues, which are necessarily prepared in a water bath, only in a slightly different way than in the previous recipe.
We will need:
- Fresh egg white – 4 pcs.
- Granulated sugar – 200 gr.
- Citric acid – 1 pinch.
Preparation:
1. Pour granulated sugar into a deep enamel or glass bowl, add citric acid crystals to it and mix. Add fresh chicken whites without any yolks or shell particles. Turn the mixer on to medium power and thoroughly combine all three ingredients.
2. To speed up the process, you can immediately place a saucepan with hot water on the stove. While the ingredients are being mixed, it will already have time to boil and the bowl with the “chatterbox” can be immediately placed on top.
To prevent the protein mass from instantly brewing, immediately turn on the mixer at maximum power and beat the “dough” in a water bath for 5 minutes.
3. Having removed the upper bowl with the contents from the “bath”, continue whipping for a couple more minutes so that the consistency cools slightly and thickens even more. Transfer it into a pastry bag or drop it using regular teaspoons onto a parchment lined dish or baking sheet.
4. Place in an oven preheated to 60 degrees and dry the meringue for an hour and a half.
Let the delicacy cool slightly right in the oven, and then remove the sheet and carefully place it on a flat surface so that the delicate cookies do not break. Completely cooled meringues can be poured into a vase or placed in a bag.
They store well and you can use them in abundance.
Note for beginners
The cream has unusual properties that make it both very convenient for the pastry chef and somewhat special.
- It cannot be prepared in advance and applied later, even after an hour; the cream is prepared and used exclusively immediately. The reason for this is its ability to dry out quickly.
- For the same reason, throughout the process of decorating the cake, the cream must be kept in a container well covered with film.
- A thin crust on its surface is a kind of sign that you have done everything correctly and the decorations will not lose their shape, but it requires special attention.
- A particular inconvenience for a beginner is the stickiness and viscosity that characterizes the “Wet Meringue” cream (the photo indicates this). They need to work quickly so that it does not have time to dry out; knowledgeable confectioners note this differently: “you just need to get used to it.”
Video on how to make the perfect colored meringue (get it right the first time)
Not everyone takes up the task of making meringue, because they believe that preparing such a treat is extremely difficult. We decided to include a video in the article that shows the opposite. Anyone can cook it. The main thing is to beat the whites correctly and well, making sure that no grains of sugar remain in the mixture. And then keep it in the oven for the required amount of time.
And as a bonus to this material, it shows how to color whipped egg whites and bake sweets from them. It turns out just super beautiful!
If you don't have a pastry syringe or bag, don't despair. Feel free to drop the pieces with a teaspoon. The products may not turn out as beautiful as in the picture, but their taste will be no worse.
Decoration process
Before starting the process, it is better to cool the mixture with the finished cream well so that it does not spoil the coating already applied to the cake. If there is none, and this mixture will be the main one on our culinary masterpiece, you can start applying decor right away.
- If you plan to level the surface, it is best to do this with a long, wide knife, which must be well rubbed. If the cream begins to stick to it, arm yourself with a clean towel and periodically completely clean the surface of the knife with it.
- Decorating the cake is done in any convenient way, with a syringe or using a pastry bag, but if there is excess cream left, it can be formed into large roses and dried separately - in the oven or in the open air. After such manipulations, the cream will acquire the consistency of the well-known ordinary meringue. It is noted that the cake does not dry out so quickly and remains moist and appetizing for a long time.
- It is not necessary to add citric acid to the cream; most often it is used by confectioners to more quickly achieve the density they need and eliminate cloying sweetness. The same effect can be achieved by adding a few drops of fresh lemon juice to the cream (be sure to strain it before doing this).
