Homemade balloon recipe. Meringues at home. Video recipe for making meringue with nuts

You can make meringue correctly and then cook delicious and crispy meringue in the oven with the help of our recommendations and recipes that you will find below. When you hear the word “meringue”, your mouth starts to water; tender and light meringues will please everyone’s taste.

When buying such a dessert on the shelves of a grocery store, it is impossible to be sure of the composition and quality of this product, so why not make real meringue at home with your own hands? It won't be difficult at all if you follow the recipe. You should separate the whites from the yolks very carefully. The container for whipping egg whites must be completely dry and free of residual fat.

Step-by-step recipe with photos. Preparing meringue and baking meringue in the oven:

THE BEST RECIPES FOR PREPARING THIS DELICITY AT HOME IN DIFFERENT WAYS (MERINGUE CAKE, MERINGUE CREAM, FRENCH STYLE) .

A classic recipe for making meringue at home.

Take 4 egg whites and 2 cups of sugar. When whipping the whites, you need to add sugar in small portions until you get a smooth, stiff consistency. Place everything in small parts on a baking sheet and bake for 45-55 minutes (optimal temperature - 110 degrees). Remove only the cooled product from the oven.

For guests, you can prepare chocolate-colored meringue, with a crispy crust and delicate viscous content. How to make meringue with a similar filling at home?

Preheat the oven. The required temperature is 100 degrees, if the oven has a fan, set it to 110 degrees. Place 2 baking sheets covered with foil or parchment.

For 16 desserts, take 4 eggs, take them out of the refrigerator in advance to warm up a little. Remove the yolks, pour the whites into a clean container, beat with a mixer (not too quickly) until a fluffy cloud is obtained. Add speed to the mixer and add sugar with a spoon (115 grams prepared) this way: add a spoon, beat for 4 seconds, add again. Do not overdo it; when you get a thick mass, stop the process.

Sift through the powdered sugar (also 115 grams) and add 30% to the mixture, stir with a spoon, then add the rest in parts. Do not stir for long.

Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet. It is better to take 2 dessert spoons and use the other to correct the shape of the desserts, making them oval. An oven with a fan will bake the meringue for about 100 minutes, without it - 75 minutes.

The finished dessert gives off a hollow sound when you knock on it, and comes off the foil without any problems. Everything cools down in the oven. 1 serving contains 15 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of protein, no fat. The energy value is 60 kilocalories.

If desired, pour chocolate glaze over the meringues (mix 4 tablespoons of cocoa and sour cream, 6 tablespoons of sugar, 30 grams of butter). Another option is to add ground ginger to the mixture.

If some of the meringues are broken, use them as a filling for pancakes or mix the slices into ice cream. Coffee, mulled wine and fondue go well with meringue.

Now you know how to make crispy and delicious meringues at home with your own hands using simple recipes. Absolutely anyone can make real meringue, and the simple recipe allows you to prepare crispy sweets at home using ingredients that can be purchased at any supermarket.

♦ VIDEO. STEP-BY-STEP RECIPES FOR BEGINNERS:

Cooking time: 2 hours 20 minutes Servings: 50

A wonderful dessert with a French name that translates as “kiss”. Melting on the lips, sweet, tender. Of course, it's meringue or meringue! Want to learn how to cook it at home? It is not difficult:)

A lot of yolks go into the Easter dough, but the whites remain “out of use.” Do you also have a lot of egg whites left after preparing the pasochki? Now we will find a use for them! And very tasty: let’s make real meringue at home! Light, airy, with a crispy thin crust and a crumbly center.

I usually used the leftover egg whites to make an omelette or chiffon cake. But at the same time, I have long dreamed of learning how to make homemade meringue. I even tried to bake cakes for the Kyiv cake once, but due to non-compliance with the temperature conditions, the result was not a white light meringue, but a golden sweet toffee. But the second time I finally learned! And I learned all the nuances, which I will now share with you, so that the meringue succeeds the first time!

The main thing for success: beat the whites correctly - once, and maintain the baking mode - twice. I cook in a gas oven, but I think the recipe would be suitable for an electric one - you just may need to adjust the baking time.

Ingredients:

For 45-50 pieces:

3 egg whites (total weight about 100 g);
150 g sugar;
A pinch of salt;
A pinch of citric acid.

Homemade meringue: recipe in the oven

Meringue secret #1 - Fresh eggs!

The first thing we need is fresh eggs. The most recent! Because it is the freshest whites that whip better: they are denser, more elastic, and the foam from them holds its shape well. And from old proteins the foam is not so stable. How can you tell if an egg is fresh? Carefully break it onto a saucer and look: the old white is spreading; for fresh ones, lie around the yolk in an elastic oval.

Trick number 2 - how to separate the whites from the yolks

Previously, I poured from one half of the shell to the other - the white poured down into the bowl, and the yolk remained in the shell. But this method is not the best, since sometimes the sharp edge of the shell can damage the yolk, and if even a little gets into the whites, they will not whip up properly. Therefore, it is much more convenient to pour the egg into your hand: the yolk remains intact in the palm, and the white is poured into the bowl through your fingers.

And also, break each egg over a separate bowl: if you suddenly get a stale one, you don’t need to replace all the whites.

Know-how No. 3 - proportions and composition

Now let's figure out how much sugar we need. For 1 white of a medium egg, take 50-60 g of sugar. For 3 proteins - 150-180 g, respectively.

For an excellent meringue, in addition to proteins and sugar, you will need a few more grains of citric acid and a pinch of salt: these additives improve whipping, add stability to the foam, and the acid slightly brightens.

Please note: the result depends not only on the correctly selected products, but also on the condition of the dishes. Both the container in which you beat and the whisks should be clean, dry and not greasy. Therefore, wash them thoroughly, wipe with a lemon wedge and wipe dry. And you can start!

Important point No. 5 - egg temperature

There is an opinion that it is necessary to beat chilled egg whites. This is not entirely true. When chilled they whip up faster, but when warm they whip up better! From the physics course we know that when cold, substances compress, and when warm, they expand. So, in cold proteins, the bonds between molecules are less extensible, so they cannot accommodate many air bubbles that form foam. They whipped it up quickly and that was it. And then they settled down just as quickly. And although warm whites need to be whipped a little longer, the molecular bonds in them are more elastic and can hold much more air, and are more stable. Therefore, we take the whites out of the refrigerator half an hour in advance so that they warm up to room temperature.

Making homemade meringue:

Add a pinch of salt to the whites and beat at low speed for 2 minutes. At first, the mass will be translucent, foamy, with bubbles, as if in champagne; then it will gradually turn white and thicken - and now you have a light, but quite thick foam, on which traces of the corollas remain. It's time to slowly add sugar.

But we don’t drink all at once! Add sugar 1-2 teaspoons at a time, whisking constantly. Along with the first spoon of sugar, add a few citric acid crystals.

I add sugar 1-2 spoons every 15-10 seconds. It takes 6-7 minutes to introduce all the sugar. Gradually increase the beating speed from low to medium and then to maximum. After adding all the sugar, beat for another 1.5-2 minutes at high speed. The foam is getting thicker.

It is enough to beat when it reaches the condition of “hard peaks”: take out the mixer and look at the “snowy peaks” - do they rise proudly and do not bend? Great! Control check: turn the bowl over :) A well-beaten mass not only won’t fall out, it won’t even move!

Cover the baking sheet with parchment, grease with butter or vegetable oil - a little. Place the mixture in a pastry bag with a nozzle or simply cut off a corner and place it on a sheet of benzene. You can put it out with a spoon dipped in water, but with an attachment the cakes come out with a more beautiful shape. Place them 3-4 cm from each other - in the process the meringue spreads a little and becomes larger. You can make many small cakes or one large cake layer.

If you have a culinary syringe with attachments, use it to form the meringues. It turns out beautiful!

Place the meringue in the oven, preheated to 110C, in the middle, and bake. By the way, it is more correct to call the raw protein mass meringue, but when baked it is already meringues.

At what temperature should you bake meringues in the oven?

In order for the meringue to turn out the way you want - dry and light - you need a fairly low temperature. In fact, it is not baked, but dried. Therefore, the temperature in the oven can fluctuate between 100 - 120C.

You should not exceed the threshold of 120C, since the high temperature melts the sugar in the meringue, forming that same caramel toffee of a golden-amber hue. This meringue stretches and sticks to your teeth like chewing gum :)

So the optimal temperature would be 110C.

How long to bake meringue in the oven

At this temperature, the meringue dried in my oven for 2 hours. For different ovens and depending on the size of the bezes, the time can vary from 1.5 to 2 or a little more hours.

How to check if meringue is ready?

First, touch gently: the surface of the finished meringue is not sticky or soft, it is dry and does not leave marks on it. Tap the meringue with your finger: if it is dry enough, you will hear a dull rustling sound. The color changes from white to light beige. You can break one piece and see if the middle is dry or still wet.

Leave the finished meringues in the switched off oven until they cool completely. Then remove and place on a wire rack. Or on a platter.

Airy, like a white cloud, tender, like a kiss, a delicacy for a cup of morning coffee... and most importantly, homemade meringue made with your own hands is awesome!

You can eat the cakes just like that, or you can decorate cakes or Easter cakes with them.

Like many other culinary and confectionery delights, the type of this cake was invented by Europeans in the 18th century and called it “meringue”. The authorship of meringues (“meringues”) is attributed to the Swiss culinary specialist Gasparini.

In Italy, they cover cakes with meringues, and sometimes they even manage to cover ice cream - thanks to the speed of baking the meringue in the oven, the ice cream doesn’t even have time to melt! In France, meringues (dacquonise) are prepared with peanuts and even molasses.

The French word “meringue” (baiser - “kiss”) has been used to call this confectionery product only in Russia since the time of Gogol. In the poem “Dead Souls” this cake is mentioned in the following passage: “Yes, Chichikov, don’t resist, let me imprint one meringue on your snow-white neck! Nozdryov was so pushed away with his meringue that he almost fell to the ground..."

With all its legendary fame and popularity, making meringue is very simple even at home; you only need two components: egg whites and granulated sugar and the presence of an oven in the house (or a microwave, we will tell you about the recipe for making meringue in it separately). Flavoring additives can vary, for example, vanilla and ingredients such as nuts, pieces of fruit or berries, or you can make meringue without them at all.

General rules for preparing meringues

There are only three main stages in a meringue recipe: whipping the ingredients into a fluffy mass, shaping the cakes, and baking them in the oven, but at each of these stages there are certain subtleties and requirements, violation of which can lead to failure:

At the stage of beating the egg whites, add granulated sugar, or better yet, powdered sugar, not immediately, but only after achieving a fluffy foam. Moreover, add sugar or powdered sugar in small portions during the beating process;
In order for the meringue mass to be molded successfully, it is best to use a pastry bag with nozzles that will give the product a beautiful shape. If you don’t have one at hand, you can use a thick bag with the tip cut off with scissors, squeezing its contents through the resulting hole.

When you prepare meringue in the oven, remember that it must be heated to at least +120 C by the time you place the baking sheet with meringue, so that the cakes dry out inside and do not fall off. The larger the meringues, the longer they bake.

Classic recipe for meringues in the oven with vanilla

Meringues according to this recipe are white and airy, with a pleasant vanilla scent, and can be consumed as an independent delicacy or as an integral part of a complex confectionery product.

Ingredients:

granulated sugar - 250 grams;
chicken egg (whites) - 4 pieces;
vanillin - on the tip of a knife;
oil - a small amount;
flour - a small amount.

Prepare meringue at home according to the classic recipe as follows:

Carefully separate the whites from the yolks so that there is not even a drop of yolk in them.

Using a mixer for 2-3 minutes, gradually increasing speed, beat the whites separated from the yolks in a suitable container until fluffy white foam.

Gradually add sugar in small doses and continue beating with a mixer until it is completely dissolved. Add vanillin to the resulting dense white mass before finishing beating.

Cover a baking tray with a suitable size sheet of baking paper, lightly grease it with oil and dust with flour.

The method you choose remains to pipe the whipped protein-sugar mass for the meringue into cakes 4-5 centimeters in diameter. At +100 C for 70-80 minutes the process of drying the baked meringue takes place, if we are talking about a standard oven.

Homemade chocolate meringue recipe

For perfect results when preparing chocolate meringue according to this recipe, you should use chocolate with a high cocoa content, at least 70%.

Ingredients:

granulated sugar - 100 grams;
dark chocolate - 50 grams.

Prepare chocolate meringue at home like this:

While the meringue mixture is being prepared, turn on the oven to heat to +120 C.
Melt the chopped dark chocolate in a water bath, stirring constantly, without bringing it to a hot state.
Beat the whites, gradually adding granulated sugar until it is completely dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved, add the melted dark chocolate. If you do not stir it with a spoon until the color is uniform, the meringue will turn out in beautiful stains of white and chocolate tones.

On a baking sheet lined with a sheet of baking paper of the required size, slightly oiled, place the meringue of the desired size using the tool you have.

Coconut meringue according to this recipe turns out to be tender, airy and snow-white, if the coconut flakes are exactly snow-white. But for lovers of other colors, there is complete freedom in choosing colored shavings.

Ingredients:

chicken egg (whites) - 2 pieces;
powdered sugar - 90 grams;
table salt - a pinch;
coconut flakes - 30 grams;
lemon juice - 1 teaspoon.

Prepare meringue with coconut flakes according to an exotic recipe at home like this:

Pour lemon juice into a dry container and rub it along its walls.
After that, put the whites in it and start beating them.
When the whites increase in volume, add powdered sugar and continue the beating process.
After finishing whipping the protein-sugar mass, add coconut flakes into it with gentle stirring, some of which can be sprinkled on the meringues before baking.
In a manner convenient for you, place the meringue mass on a baking sheet, covered according to its shape with baking paper, greased with oil, measuring 4-5 centimeters in diameter.

Place the baking sheet with meringue in an oven preheated to +110-130 C and dry the cakes until ready (usually no more than 45 minutes). By the way, after baking, the meringues can be glued together using chocolate paste, it will turn out beautifully!

Original recipe for meringue with Charlotte cream

Coat the airy cakes, stacked bottoms with each other, with cream from the remaining yolks. You need to pipe the meringues for folding using a cooking bag so that they turn out one on one, and when glued together with cream they look like white balls.

Ingredients for meringue:

chicken egg (whites) - 6 pieces;
granulated sugar - 1.5 cups;
vanilla - 1 sachet;
nuts - 1 cup.

For cream:

chicken egg yolks - 6 pieces;
granulated sugar - 9 tablespoons;
fresh milk - 180 milliliters;
vanillin - 1 sachet;
butter - 200 grams.

Prepare meringue with Charlotte cream at home according to the original recipe as follows:

Carefully split the chicken eggs in half and, by rolling the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, cleanly drain the whites into a separate bowl.
Grind your preferred nuts (hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds, walnuts) in a convenient way.
Beat the egg whites with a mixer, adding granulated sugar and vanillin alternately. Add 0.5 tablespoons of nuts, prepared in advance, and carefully mix into the protein-sugar mixture.
Transfer the meringue mixture into a baking bag and place it portionwise on oiled baking paper lined with a baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet with meringue in an oven preheated to +120 C for approximately 1.5 hours.
Prepare the cream as follows: in a suitable heat-resistant container, dilute milk with granulated sugar and put it on moderate heat.
Beat the yolks with the remaining milk and pour this mixture into the boiling milk mixture while stirring. As soon as the whole mass begins to thicken, turn off the heat to prevent it from boiling and the yolks curdling. Allow the cream mixture to cool.
In another container, beat the softened butter with a mixer, add the yolk mass and vanillin while stirring.
Cool and remove the finished meringue from the baking sheet, spread the bottom of one of the pair of meringues with cream and combine it with the second, sprinkling the mixture with chopped nuts.

Diet meringue recipe with sweetener

Meringue cake lovers who limit their intake of sugar for any medical reasons will like this recipe because it is based not on granulated sugar, but on stevia extract. Other sweeteners are also possible. Vanillin will help improve its aroma.

Ingredients:

chicken egg whites - 3 pieces;
stevia herb extract - 0.5 teaspoon;
lemon juice - 1 tablespoon;
cinnamon - a pinch;
vanillin - a pinch.

Meringue with sweetener according to a dietary recipe is prepared as follows:

In a suitable container, combine the whites with lemon juice and beat until fluffy with a mixer.
Add stevia extract into the resulting mass and continue whisking.
Pour cinnamon and vanillin into the fluffy mass and stir with a spoon until smooth.
Considering that the meringue mass, in the absence of natural sugar, is weaker in consistency, the meringue should be deposited from the pastry bag in small portions: otherwise it will settle during the baking process and lose its lush appeal.
Dry until fully cooked in an oven preheated to +100-120 C.

Summer meringue recipe at home

Children will be the first to enjoy such picturesque meringues; they will successfully decorate any dessert table. Any tender, juicy, seedless berries go well with this cake: raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.

Ingredients:

chicken egg - 6 pieces;
granulated sugar - 2 cups;
cinnamon - 0.5 teaspoon;
chocolate - 100 grams;
fresh berries - 200 grams.

According to the summer meringue recipe at home, prepare it like this:

Sort the washed and dried berries into whole and mashed ones. From the latter, squeeze out the juice in the amount of a tablespoon. The rest of the berries will have to wait.
Beat the whites in a suitable container, gradually adding sugar and crushed into powder. At the end of whipping, add squeezed berry juice, the color of which can be enhanced with a small amount of food coloring.
Place the prepared meringue mass on a baking sheet lined with oiled baking paper and place in the prepared oven at +100 C to dry the meringue.
At this time, melt the chocolate in a water bath.
Place the finished meringues on a dish, cool, remove the tops with a spoon, which will make their surface smooth.
Place the prepared berries on top and pour melted chocolate over them. As soon as the chocolate hardens, the dessert, beautiful and tasty, is ready to decorate your table and delight you with its excellent taste.

Homemade nut meringue recipe

Any nuts are suitable for such a cake, but not mixed with each other, because it will not be a bouquet of aromas, but a jumble of them.

Ingredients:

fresh chicken egg whites - 4 pieces;
granulated sugar or powdered sugar - 180 grams;
nuts - 50 grams;
lemon juice - 1 teaspoon;
table salt - a pinch.

Prepare meringue at home according to a nut recipe as follows:

Cool the peeled nuts, dried in a frying pan, place on a cutting board and roll out with a rolling pin so that they are evenly crushed into visible pieces.
Beat fresh egg whites with a pinch of salt with a mixer in a suitable container and, pouring lemon juice into them, continue beating, gradually adding sugar.
As soon as the homogeneous mass becomes snow-white with a slight shine, stop the beating process.
Pour nuts into the prepared mixture and carefully stir them until smooth with a spoon.
All that remains is to transfer the mixture into a pastry bag and place it in equal portions on a baking sheet with oiled baking paper.
Place the baking sheet in a preheated oven to +100 C and bake for at least two hours, because the presence of nuts, due to their fat content and weight, slows down the rise of the meringues.

Classic meringue recipe in the microwave

All previous meringue recipes were about how to make a cake in the oven, and now we will tell you how to cook meringue in the microwave. In principle, this method of preparing meringue is no different from the classic recipe, only the heat treatment format changes.

Ingredients for making meringue in the microwave:

egg whites - 3 pieces;
granulated sugar - 200 grams;
butter - 1 teaspoon;
salt - a pinch;
citric acid - on the tip of a knife.

To prepare meringue in the microwave, you will need the oven itself, ingredients and some utensils: a mixer, a deep bowl, parchment and a pastry bag for forming the meringues.

According to the classic recipe for meringue in the microwave, cook as follows:

Separate the yolks from the whites, preferably placing each egg in a separate container.
Place the whites in a deep bowl, add a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and beat the mixture until thick white foam.
Pour citric acid, half the remaining volume of sugar (sand or powdered sugar) into the protein mass that has increased in volume at the tip of a knife and continue beating the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Line a microwave-safe tray with parchment (baking paper), after greasing it with butter.
Place the resulting protein mass in a pastry bag and use it to pipe small meringues of equal size so that there is the required distance between them to avoid sticking together. If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can use a plastic bag with a corner cut off or simply spread out the meringue with a spoon.
Turn on the microwave to convection mode, heat to +130 C, place a tray with meringue in it and continue baking the cake for 30 minutes

By the way, you can also make multi-colored meringues using food coloring (powder).

When separating fresh chicken eggs into whites and yolks, care is required so that not a drop of yolk ends up in the white mass. It is better to divide each egg in a separate container, which will help avoid stale eggs, and add them one by one to a common container.

To obtain a stable meringue mass, pre-cool the whites in the refrigerator. The container for whipping egg whites must be metal or glass, excluding aluminum utensils. Plastic containers also do not allow you to whip up a fluffy protein mass. It is very important that the walls of the container for whipping egg whites are absolutely clean and dry. This requirement also applies to the mixer, on which there should not be a single drop of fat.

When baking meringues in a gas oven, it is quite difficult to strictly maintain the temperature regime. If it rises during the drying process, the meringue will darken. For this reason, it is better to entrust such a delicate task to an electric oven, where the set temperature is maintained more accurately.

To completely follow the French meringue recipe, you need to follow 12 simple steps, since any seemingly trifle can ruin everything. After which your meringue will look great and taste great.

We treat all the dishes with a napkin moistened with a small amount of vinegar and let the smell of vinegar dissipate. You cannot add vinegar to meringues.
We set the electric oven to a temperature of 150° with a heating mode from below and from above, without a fan or grill. If the oven is gas, then a temperature of 180° and the door ajar 1.5 cm will do.
15 minutes before starting to beat the meringue, separate the whites and let them stand at room temperature.
Add a pinch of salt to the whites and start beating them at low speed.
After obtaining a lush, homogeneous foam, add sugar (powdered sugar) in a thin stream, whisking constantly. We try to ensure that the sugar mixes well with the proteins and does not allow it to settle at the bottom of the container.
We also add vanilla sugar and citric acid (ascorbic acid) into the resulting protein mass in a thin stream.
Now we beat everything at the highest possible speed until the mass becomes elastic, thick, white and, most importantly, when lifting the whisks, sharp, non-blurring peaks should form.
Spread the meringue onto a baking sheet with a regular spoon or silicone spatula. It’s more convenient to make your favorite roses with a pastry syringe. The distance between the bezels should be at least half their diameter, since during the drying process they almost double in size.
You need to place the meringue on the middle level of the oven, which should have warmed up well.
Bake the meringue at the specified temperature for 5-7 minutes and turn off the oven completely. Please note that if the temperature is set correctly and the oven is evenly heated, the bezes will first become matte and begin to increase in size. And after 7 minutes, a glossy crispy crust will begin to form on them, the rest of the time is necessary for everything to bake inside without burning.
Now you need to wait until the oven has completely cooled down, after which you can open it and take out the finished meringues. It takes approximately 2 to 4 hours to cool completely, so it's best to leave them in a cooling oven overnight.
Remove from the oven and get a delicious delicacy according to the French recipe.

Properly prepared meringue will be snow-white, glossy and without a single crack. If you don’t have time to tinker with meringue yourself, then you can try excellent meringue in one of the unusual cafes in Moscow.

French meringue recipe

Meringue, a recipe common in France, is prepared by baking whipped egg whites with sugar for a long time at a low temperature. The lush protein mass is dense, glossy, but does not hold its shape for a long time. Therefore, it will not be possible to prepare patterned roses with sharp edges. But it’s great for creating cute, voluminous frozen drops.

Italian meringue recipe

The Italian version of the Meringue recipe involves combining whipped egg whites with thick, hot sugar syrup. This mixture is similar to custard, holds its shape perfectly, does not fall off and is great for decorating cakes, coating waffle cakes, tubes, eclairs and even donuts.

Swiss meringue recipe

The most difficult preparation technology is meringue, the recipe for which was invented in Switzerland. The whole difficulty lies in the fact that you need to beat the whites with sugar in a steam bath, while making sure that the mass is beaten slowly, evenly and in no case burns to the walls of the dish. Even the slightest violation of technology will contribute to the formation of lumps in the protein mass.

The result of such a complex recipe is worth it. The whipped, dense mass obtained in a steam bath ideally holds even the most complex and refined shape. The Swiss meringue recipe is ideal for creating the most intricate roses and does not require long drying. Ready-made meringues can be easily greased with rich cream - they will no longer settle or lose their shape.

Dishes and ingredients for meringue: recipe for 12 pieces (70 grams)

Dishes

bowl with high edges;
mixer with whisks;
oven tray;
baking parchment;
vinegar for degreasing;
cream injector.

Ingredients

egg white – 1 piece;
sugar – 60 grams (1/3 cup);
vanilla sugar – 1 teaspoon;
citric acid – 1/4 teaspoon;
salt – 1/6 teaspoon.

Nuances and little tricks of the meringue recipe

1. Wipe all dishes with vinegar.
All dishes that the squirrels will come into contact with must be perfectly clean and dry. Even a small amount of fat on the walls can greatly complicate the beating process and contribute to the transformation of the protein mass into a sole.

Therefore, French pastry chefs recommend all utensils before cooking: bowls, spoons, spatulas, mixer whisks, pastry syringe, etc. wipe with ordinary table vinegar 9% vinegar. It is enough to moisten a disposable napkin with a small amount of vinegar, treat all surfaces and wait a little while for the vinegar to completely disappear.

2. Carefully separate the whites from the yolks.
It is important to separate the whites from the yolks with the utmost care, so that not the slightest drop of yolk gets into the container with the whites. For convenience, you can separate each egg over a separate container. If the white is well separated from the yolk, pour it into a bowl prepared for whipping. The remaining yolks can be used to make homemade mayonnaise.

3. Store the meringue in an airtight container in a dry place.
Under no circumstances should it be in the refrigerator. Meringue can be stored for quite a long time in an airtight container. If you leave it on the table, then there is a high probability that it will become damp and cease to be airy and crispy. This happens especially often if meringues are left on the table in the kitchen or in the room during the cool season, when the central heating is already turned off or has not yet been turned on. It is strictly forbidden to store meringue in the refrigerator without packaging - it becomes damp within an hour.

4. Do not combine with fatty creams.
Classic French meringue, even after cooking, will not be able to adequately withstand contact with fat, which means trying to combine two meringues with a cream based on both vegetable and animal fats is pointless - it will fall off and turn into a sticky, sweet cake.

5. Maintain proportions.
How many people have so many tastes: some like it sweeter, some with sourness, some with the aroma of caramel, etc. Classic meringue is white in color and has a medium sweet taste with a hint of lemon. Therefore, the more sugar there is in the composition, the sooner the meringues will become caramel and stick to the parchment.

If the goal is to prepare caramel meringue, then the amount of sugar should be increased by 1/4 and the drying temperature should be increased. As soon as the sugar caramelizes and turns into a delicate brown shade of meringue, the temperature must be reduced, otherwise the caramelization process will continue and liquid sugar will begin to accumulate around the meringues.

6. Do not open the oven during the entire cooking time.
Electric ovens easily maintain a moderate temperature, and as a result, you cannot open the oven, since a rapid flow of cold air from the kitchen will cause the protein mass to instantly fall off.

How to choose food and utensils

Eggs

The secret to good tasting meringue is the right choice of ingredients. It is better not to make meringue from the freshest eggs. They whip very poorly and fall off quickly. The protein foam is loose and matte. For pastry recipes in which a dense shape is important, it is better to use a week's fresh egg whites or a little more. They contain less moisture and better retain air bubbles, which are so necessary to give airiness and lightness to the meringue.

It is absolutely forbidden to use stale eggs or eggs whose quality you strongly doubt for meringue. The protein mass, whipped with sugar, is dried at a low temperature and such heat treatment is not enough to kill pathogenic microorganisms that may be in low-quality eggs.

Sugar

It would seem, how can granulated sugar differ from one another? Surprisingly, depending on the raw materials and manufacturing method, sugar differs radically in its properties. In addition to the fact that sugar can be brown and white, made from cane and sugar beets respectively, sugar can also vary in crystal size, bleaching technique and purification.

Meringue according to the classic recipe is best prepared from perfectly white and fine granulated sugar or powdered sugar. The larger the sugar crystals, the longer you will have to beat and the more likely it is that the sugar will not dissolve completely. Coarse sugar will make the surface of the dried meringue uneven. The color of granulated sugar can greatly affect the color of the finished product, and even bleaching with citric acid will not help.

Making powdered sugar is very simple. All you need to do is take a regular coffee grinder and grind the sugar in it. You can use both manual and electric. If you don't have a coffee grinder, a mortar and pestle will do, but the powder will be uneven and you will have to spend a lot of time on it.

Lemon acid

It is better to use citric acid in powder form, so it mixes better with proteins. But you can use liquid or lemon juice. Sometimes ascorbic acid is used to prepare meringue; it adds a barely noticeable sourness, but it whitens it perfectly and acts as an excellent preservative.

Mixer

Many chefs and pastry chefs recommend beating eggs and sugar by hand, saying that this makes them softer and fluffier. However, without good physical shape and preliminary training, the whipping process will take a very long time. It is better to use a mixer with whisks, which, like the whipping container, should be treated with vinegar.

Capacities

It is better to divide all the containers in which you cook according to the appropriate purpose: for salads, for raw meat or fish, and for preparing confectionery masterpieces. No matter how well a dishwasher works or how perfect a hand wash solution is, fish odors can be difficult to completely remove from dishes.

Particular difficulties arise if in a bowl in which you have repeatedly mixed Olivier salad or seasoned with Greek oil, you need to beat the whites with sugar. Old greasy coating and odors will not contribute to the good taste and airiness of bezes.

Oven

The oven is of great importance for preparing meringues. Therefore, a huge variety of ways have arisen to achieve the desired temperature. There are two diametrically opposed positions: some confectioners believe that it should be baked in a tightly closed oven and opened only after the meringue has completely dried and cooled; others - that it should be baked in a slightly open oven at high temperature.

The choice is determined primarily by the type of oven and the ability to maintain temperature. Oddly enough, the original Soviet gas oven was ideal for making meringue, the recipe for which was known to almost every schoolchild: temperature 180° and a kitchen towel, allowing you to make a small gap between the oven and the door. This technique was justified by the inability of most old ovens to heat evenly at low temperatures.

A modern oven makes cooking meringues a process similar to flying into space. The large number of programs and the ability to select functions have significantly complicated many simple recipes.

If you use an electric oven, do not open it until the meringue is completely dry and cool. The reason is explained as follows: in a gas oven, the air flow to maintain combustion occurs through a special air duct; An electric oven does not have a duct.

Cold air from the kitchen flows through the duct to the heating element. Heated, dry air rushes into the main chamber of the gas oven and promotes baking. Therefore, the air temperature should be high and the main chamber should be open.

In electric ovens, there is no air flow through the heating element and, as a result, if you open a heated oven, hot air will rush out, and cold air will take its place, which will instantly cause the meringue to spread across the baking sheet.

Meringue recipe history

The history of the famous meringue recipe originates in Europe at the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. However, as practice shows, preparing delicious, fluffy meringue is not so easy. The first mention of a culinary masterpiece made from egg whites and sugar dates back to the 17th century. The name Meringue comes from the French "baiser", which means kiss. The second name “meringue” is much less common. And according to some sources, it comes from the name of the Swiss city “Meiringen”, where an Italian chef invented a method of preparing them.

Meringues are oven-dried whipped egg whites. Meringues are usually called cakes, the basis of which is protein cream. Traditionally, meringue recipes are divided into: French-classic, Italian and Swiss.

Everyone seems to know the meaning of this word. Meringue is easy, sweet and very tasty. You can decorate cakes, pies, desserts with them, serve them yourself, or simply eat them with tea.

To make tasty and good meringues, you definitely need fresh eggs. This is the only option that will suit us. In principle, this option remains relevant when using eggs in any dish.

The first thing to do when buying eggs is to shake them. Yes, it may look strange, but this way you can choose a fresh product for yourself. Don't worry, you won't be the first person to do this when purchasing. The egg should remain silent in response. If you hear a dull thud, do not buy the product; it is already spoiled or is in the early stages of spoilage.

When purchasing eggs in a cardboard box, be sure to check the expiration date. Most often it is indicated correctly on the packaging. And here, by the way, it is also important to remember that after the expiration date, eggs can be safely used for several more days.

The third method for egg freshness is suitable for eggs that have already been purchased. Fill a deep container with water and drop the eggs into it one at a time. The higher the eggs are, the sooner they need to be thrown away. If it lies at the bottom, then it may have been demolished just a couple of hours ago.

And one more method, which is also suitable for us and also only for purchased eggs. Here you need to break the eggs and if the yolk is elastic and dense, and the white is viscous, the product is fresh. If the yolk is flat and the white is runny, it's time to throw that egg away.

Vanilla meringue in the oven

Cooking time

calorie content per 100 grams

For lovers of classic sweets, we offer meringues with added vanilla. Vanilla can always be called a classic, as it is included in almost all desserts.

How to cook:

Tip: the smaller your meringues are, the faster the oven will dry them.

How long is it - 2 hours and 20 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 269 calories.

How to cook:

Pour the whites into the container and start beating them;
When a light foam appears, pour in the citrus juice and continue beating the whites;
Next, add sugar and now achieve stable peaks;
Grind cocoa using a fine grater;
Add cocoa foam to the foam, stir until the whites are uniform in color;
Then add chocolate and mix again until smooth;
Place the chocolate whites on a baking sheet covered with paper;
Place in the oven for two hours at 90 degrees.

Tip: to make the meringue color as uniform as possible, you can add a little brown coloring.

This option is more likely for exotic lovers. We will add a little coconut shavings to the standard peaks so that true nut connoisseurs will immediately love this recipe.

How long is it - 1 hour and 50 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 305 calories.

How to cook:

Pour the whites into a container, add salt to them and start beating the mixture;
When the peaks become sharp and dense, pour in wine vinegar;
Beat the mixture again to evenly distribute the vinegar among the whites;
Now add powdered sugar through a sieve and beat the mixture again. As a result, it should turn out such that it does not move when the bowl is turned over;
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees;
Add coconut shavings to the whites and gently mix the whole mass with a spatula;
Lower the oven temperature to 100 degrees;
Place meringues of the desired size and shape on a baking sheet with paper;
Place in the oven for ninety minutes.

Advice: if you are afraid that vinegar will lower the whites, then you need to know that it, like lemon juice, prevents the whites from falling. Therefore, it is added to future meringues.

For real nut lovers! Add any nuts, thereby experimenting with the taste, color and aroma of light meringues. But you know, this time they can hardly be called easy...

How long is it - 1 hour and 20 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 396 calories.

How to cook:

Place the peanuts in a dry frying pan and brown them;
Pour the whites into a bowl, add powdered sugar and vanilla sugar;
Beat the mixture to stable peaks using a mixer;
Throw honey into an empty frying pan and melt it;
Add oatmeal to it and roll them in honey;
Let them caramelize, then pour into a bowl or plate to cool;
Chop the chocolate into small pieces with a knife;
Add it to the whites, mix gently with a spoon;
The peanuts have already cooled down; you can chop them with a knife into more or less large pieces;
Add nuts to the whites and carefully combine again;
It’s better to immediately take the seeds, peeled, and pour them into the frying pan;
Brown them and let cool. They cannot be added to proteins while hot;
Add the cooled seeds to the nuts, whites and chocolate, mix with a spatula;
Send oat flakes for seeds;
Cover the baking dish with paper or lightly grease it with oil;
Place mounds of protein using a tablespoon. Of course, you can use a bag, but in this case without a nozzle. Here you will have to make a large hole;
Turn on the oven at 160 Celsius and place a baking sheet in it;
Bake until done (dry and firm crust).

For those who are not in a hurry or who don’t have time. You only have to work with the oven for an hour, then wait all night and in the morning you will have a delicious and unusual breakfast waiting for you.

How long is it – 1 hour and 15 minutes + night.

What is the calorie content - 298 calories.

How to cook:

Pass the powder through a sieve and mix it with sugar;
Preheat the oven to 120 Celsius;
Pour the whites into a container, add half of the sugar mixture to them;
Beat the mixture until light foam and then add the remaining sugar;
Bring the whites to stiff peaks;
Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper, place the meringue on the paper with a spoon or through a nozzle;
Place the pan in the oven for one hour;
Then turn off the oven, but take out the meringue only the next morning.

Tip: to get colored meringues, divide the whites into several parts and add a drop of dye. Bright pleasure will await you the next morning!

Cranberry meringue in the oven

It’s rare that anyone makes meringue with the addition of any fruits or berries, especially in the fresh version. But we decided to take a risk and, believe it or not, we were more than just satisfied.

What time is it – 2 hours.

What is the calorie content - 209 calories.

How to cook:

Turn the oven on to 110 degrees and let it warm up;
Wash the cranberries well, leave in a colander to drain all the water;
Then transfer to a dry towel or napkins to remove absolutely all moisture;
Pour the whites into a container, add sugar and vanilla, beat them to stable peaks;
Add dry berries, mix gently;
Place a sheet of paper on a baking sheet and spoon out the meringue;
Place in the oven and bake until the crust is firm;
Then turn off the oven and do not touch the meringue until it cools completely.

Advice: it is better to leave the berries whole, otherwise they will leak and the juice will ruin all the meringues.

To prepare meringue, it is very important to use not only fresh, but also preferably chilled eggs. Yolks, by the way, whip better if they are warm (meaning room temperature), but whites, on the contrary, need cold.

It is also highly advisable to use a container that can be cooled. For example, a bowl made of aluminum, iron, metal. At least half an hour before starting to prepare the meringue, the bowl/other container should be placed in the freezer.

The same goes for a whisk or mixer. In the case of an electric appliance, of course, there is no need to place the appliance in the freezer; a whisk is enough. By the way, before whipping, you can grate it with lemon juice so as not to add it to the whites themselves. This also applies to vinegar.

The whites should turn into a dense foam with stable peaks. This means that if you turn the bowl upside down, the whites will remain motionless. Scary? Beat it so that there is no such thought!

Meringue is a sweet snack, if you can call it that, that costs nothing to prepare. Ten minutes of your time is worth it! The rest is oven drying. It is delicious!