Meringue
Meringue is a very light and crumbly sweet preparation, based on egg whites and icing sugar, typical of Italian and French cuisine.
The meringue takes its name from the Swiss city of Meiringen in the Canton of Bern, where it was first created by a pastry chef.
French meringue
Ordinary meringue is the most common in Italy, it is bought both in pastry shops and bakeries and technically speaking, it is called French meringue, although in France it is rarely used.
To prepare it, separate the egg whites from the yolks, then add the icing sugar, and whip until stiff peaks are made.
Various shapes are created, such as the slap, that is a small pointed heap, and the saucer, in the shape of a flat disc.
The forms must cook for several hours at very low temperatures; this type of cooking is often referred to as a very sweet oven.
The ideal would be to cook the meringues for 3 hours in a slightly open oven, at 60-70 ° C.
Very common in Piedmont, both as a cream meringue and as a meringue cake.
Italian meringue
Ironically, the Italian meringue is typical of France, in Italy it is used much more rarely.
The definition, however, is universally maintained since the fundamental recipe books of the pastry were French.
In the Italian meringue, the egg whites are separated from the yolks and whipped until stiff peaks are made.
Take the sugar combined with water and cook it until it reaches 121 ° C. This syrup is then poured along the edge of the container where the egg whites have been whipping for at least 7-8 minutes.
The product obtained, which will be left to rest for half an hour, is not cooked like ordinary meringue, although it is already cooked when the syrup is added to the egg whites.
Swiss meringue
Separate the egg whites from the yolks, put them in a tinned copper saucepan with the sugar.
Put the pot on the stove and beat the mixture until it reaches 60 ° C.
It withdraws from the heat and finishes whipping and then cooking it in the oven in various forms.
It cooks at a much higher temperature than ordinary meringue: 120 ° C – 140 ° C against 40 ° C – 60 ° C.
Sardinian meringue
Its peculiarity is the presence of threaded almonds.
It is cooked in the oven at 100 ° C for about 15 minutes.
Moroccan meringue
there is the addition of chopped hazelnuts.
Meringue
Ingredients
- 105 gr egg white
- 400 gr sugar
- 80 ml water
Instructions
- Beat the egg whites until stiff.
- Create a syrup with water and sugar bringing them up to 121 ° C.
- Pour the syrup continuously into the egg whites and let the planetary mixer turn until the mixture cools.
- Form the meringues on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 1 hour and a half hours at 90 ° C, then open the oven door a few centimeters and finish cooking with another 30 minutes.
- Leave them in the oven off until cool.(the meringue doesn't have to cook, it just has to dry)
Slab of meringue to be broken
Ingredients
- 300 gr egg white
- 300 gr granulated sugar
- 300 gr powdered sugar
Instructions
- Whip egg white and granulated sugar until stiff.
- I incorporate the icing sugar with a spatula.
- Level the meringue on a sheet of parchment paper, it must be 5 millimeters thick, I move the sheet of parchment paper and place it in a pan.
- Bake at 90 degrees for 8 hours.(the higher the degrees, the more we will have a yellowing and cracking meringue)