The friable, fragile meringue, like the meringue cake, hails from France. Melting and tender, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, she was called by the French "air kiss."
Protein cakes are called meringue, and protein cream is called meringue. It is from it, in fact, that meringues are made. It is also used as a filling for a variety of confectionery. At first, it may seem that making meringues is quite simple, because the composition contains a very small number of ingredients, but this is a very moody and complex dessert, the quality of which depends on many different factors. Not every amateur culinary specialist knows how to cook meringue and meringue, so at first it’s worth learning some secrets to get a great airy dessert.
Cooking meringues and meringues
How to bake meringues? Which is the best recipe to use? Meringue at home can be done in many ways. Of course, it will be necessary to achieve a high culinary level in the art of making protein air dough, which should remain tender, airy, dense, at the same time light and keep its shape well. If you know some of the nuances of cooking, you will get excellent tasty and beautiful meringues and other desserts made from egg whites, whipped with sugar and baked in the oven. There are several ways to make meringues: Swiss, French and Italian.
Three types of meringue
How do the French cook? They do it simply: whisk the whites with a pinch of salt and add a little bit of icing sugar to dense peaks. Ready whipped protein should keep its shape very well. Such meringues come out airy, tender, but they are only suitable for cakes of simple shape, as they can lose their appearance and blur.
The Italians are replacing sugar with thick hot sugar syrup, adding it with a thin stream directly in the process of whipping. With this delicious soft cream, they start eclairs, tubes and layered cakes. This cream mixes well with oil. But the meringue, cooked according to the French recipe, with the addition of oil will lose its shape.
The Swiss recipe for making meringues is truly virtuoso. A protein cream is made in a water bath, and this mass increases several times in volume. It makes excellent patterns on pastries and cakes that look spectacular and do not blur. On the basis of such a cream, you can cook a baby cake with meringues.
Cooking nuances
Be sure to thoroughly wash and degrease all the dishes and kitchen utensils used for making meringues and meringues. Fat will prevent the maintenance of a dense protein structure and adversely affect the quality of the test. To avoid this, you can wipe the dishes with vinegar and then rinse with cold water, and then wait until the dishes dry out. And you can add lemon juice to boiling water and rinse the dishes with this mixture.
Which eggs to take - fresh or not so? If you eat protein cream, which is not subject to heat treatment, it is recommended to use the freshest eggs. But for meringue, eggs that have been lying for a week will be more suitable, because such a protein beats much easier. To prepare meringues, take not cool proteins, but warm ones at room temperature. Squirrels from the refrigerator will whip faster, but in the end the mass will turn out to be less voluminous, more stable in the oven and more dense. But warm proteins will give you an airy lush mass with a good relief, and these products will rise well and keep their shape.
Sugar or powder?
To beat, take powdered sugar, not sugar. With it, the mass will be beaten much better and it will turn out more light and gentle. But if the sugar does not dissolve completely, it will be unpleasant to creak with food. At the beginning of whipping, put the mixer at a slow speed to add oxygen to the mass, but when bubble foam is already formed, increase the speed to maximum. Powdered sugar can be added gradually. If you add everything at once, then after baking, the meringues will settle.
To get delicious crispy meringues, whites need to be whipped to dense sharp peaks, when when you take out the whisk, the mass will reach for it. If you get not sharp peaks, but round ones that start to fall, then they are suitable for making dough for a biscuit cake with meringues, and the meringue itself will not work out of them. Before whipping, it is sometimes advised to add a pinch of salt or lemon juice to the proteins so that the mass is larger in volume and lush, but if you have a good modern blender or mixer, you can do without these additives. If you need to add starch or flour to the proteins, be sure to sift them to saturate with air and give the dough airiness.
How to bake?
Meringue bake best on parchment, setting the temperature to 80-110 ° C, for 1.5-2 hours. But still try not to dry the dessert, because it should be crispy and not have a dark crust.
If you need softer and more tender meringues, bake them at 150 ° C. You can first bake at high temperature (200 ° C), and then reduce the fire to 100 degrees and leave for another half hour. When baking a meringue, the oven must not be opened, otherwise the blanks will become flat cakes, as they will fall off. You cannot store meringues in the refrigerator, otherwise it will become damp. Based on the meringue recipe, you can cook a huge number of excellent confectionery products, adding coffee, berries, fruits, chocolate, milk, cream, nuts and spices. You can pour the meringues with chocolate icing, serve with ice cream, vanilla or butter cream, make a filling for sweet sandwiches and pancakes, cream for cakes and cakes.
Sponge cake and meringue
You will need a shape with a diameter of 23 centimeters.
For the test:
- Flour - 200 g.
- A pinch of salt.
- Butter chilled butter - 150 g.
- Sugar - 30 g.
- Yolks - two pieces.
- Cold water - 50 ml.
- Baking powder - a teaspoon.
Filling:
- Walnuts - 200 g.
- Sugar - 35 g.
Meringue:
- Squirrels - five pieces.
- Sugar - 300 g.
- Water - 60 ml.
- Lemon juice - a tablespoon.
Cooking process
We start cooking with the test. Sugar is mixed with flour, salt, baking powder. Cut the butter in the form of cubes, add the yolks to it, grind everything into crumbs. When the crumb becomes homogeneous, add water, knead the dough, wrap it with foil and put in the refrigerator for half an hour. Fry the nuts for several minutes in a skillet, remove the skins from them and cut them into pieces. Distribute the chilled dough into a shape, forming a small side that will cover the nuts. Puncture the dough with a fork in several places and bake for about 15 minutes at 160 ° C. The dough should not be fully prepared. Let it cool, sprinkle with nuts and sugar.
How to make a meringue for a cake? Mix sugar and water, bring to a 140 degree stove, turn off the heat and add lemon juice. Beat the squirrels at the same time so that they are ready by the time the syrup is made. Continuing to beat, gently and gradually introduce syrup into the proteins and beat until the protein cream has cooled. Put the finished meringue on the cake and smooth. Place in an oven preheated to 160 ° C and immediately reduce the temperature by 40 ° C. After half an hour, reduce to 100 degrees, and after another half hour turn off the oven. Let the cake cool in the oven for half an hour. The completely cooled cake can be removed from the mold.
Orange cake with meringue
Take a shape of no more than 20 cm.
You will need to test:
- Two thirds of a glass of flour.
- Chilled butter - 50 g.
- Icy water - two to three tablespoons.
- A pinch of salt.
For Kurdish:
- Sugar - 100 g.
- An egg is one piece.
- Yolk is one thing.
- Butter - 30 g.
- Flour - a teaspoon.
- Zest and orange juice.
- Zest and juice of half a lemon.
Meringue:
- Protein 1 egg.
- Sugar - 60 g.
- Powdered sugar - 50 g.
Let's cook!
Sift salt with flour into a bowl, add chopped butter. Grind the butter and flour into the crumbs with your hands, add ice water and knead the dough. Form a cake out of it, wrap it with foil and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour. When the dough has cooled, roll it out, shift it into a mold and cut off the edges. Pierce the bottom with a fork or lay weighting so that it does not rise. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 ° C. During this time, wash the fruits, dry, grate the zest and squeeze the juice. Mix sugar, zest and juice until sugar dissolves and leave. After half an hour, strain the juice, add flour and eggs, stir with a whisk and cook, without ceasing to stir, over low heat until thickened. When the cream has cooled slightly, add the butter.
We are preparing a meringue to decorate the cake. Beat the whites to dense peaks, adding a little sugar. Put the Kurdish on the finished cake, and top the meringue from the pastry bag. Bake your cake in the oven until you see a golden crust. Serve cooled.
Walnut Meringue Cake
Ingredients:
- Two chicken large eggs.
- Sugar - one glass.
- A pinch of salt.
- Butter - 200 g.
- Condensed milk is a can.
- A pinch of vanillin.
- Any strong alcohol is a tablespoon.
- Walnuts - 150 g.
How to cook meringue cake? Separate the whites from the yolks and beat them at low speed until you get soft peaks. While adding sugar little by little, beat at high speed until it is completely dissolved. Put the mass evenly on the parchment and place the baking sheet with it on the upper level. Cook at 100 degrees in the oven for about an hour. Dry the nuts, chop in a pan. Beat butter with a mixer until the mass brightens and becomes more magnificent. Add a little condensed milk, and in the end - vanillin and alcohol. When the oven is turned off, open the door and let the meringue cool. It turns crispy around the edges and viscous inside. Break it into pieces, lay out the cake mold with a film, put a few tablespoons of cream (about 1/4) on the bottom, meringue (about 1/3) on top and sprinkle with dried nuts. And so alternate all the layers until the ingredients run out. Put the finished cake in the freezer for 3-4 hours. Turn the finished cake onto a dish and remove the film. Garnish with nuts.
A cake made of biscuit with meringue is the best decoration of the festive table, especially for children, because it turns out to be light, delicate, beautiful and allows you to fantasize by adding different fillings, fruits, berries.