An airy veil of delicate taste, incredible freshness and pleasant unobtrusive sweetness of whipped proteins are all about meringue. The dessert, consisting of sugar and egg whites, has been known to culinary experts for many centuries. If you know the right technology and the correct proportions of the ingredients, then even a novice hostess can cook it in her own kitchen. We bring to your attention a recipe for meringues with nuts, which, like many other dishes, has its culinary secrets and features.
A bit of history
If you translate the name of the dessert from the French language, then it will mean "kiss". Like many other dishes originating in France, meringues (meringues) have a romantic explanation. This delicate dessert in cookbooks has different names: "meringues of love", "French kiss", "French meringue", "headwind". There are several legends that tell about the origin of meringues. The most common says that the confectioner from a small town in Meiringen, Switzerland, beat egg whites for the first time with sugar. Since then, a delicacy melting in your mouth has been called meringue.
Despite the speed and simplicity of preparation, this dish was the only decoration of the royal table. But due to the availability of ingredients, the meringue recipe with nuts gradually migrated from the kitchen of noble people to ordinary restaurants and cafeterias. Now it is a universally known dessert, which is widespread throughout the world.
Royal Cake
The chefs of the Soviet era considered his own invention. Our grandmothers and mothers much later learned that the Serbian confectioner invented the royal cake recipe with meringues and nuts. The cooking process was so simple, fast and understandable even for beginners, that the recipe for several years flew around the globe. Of course, each country has its own version of the preparation of royal cake. Today we have chosen the simplest one, proven by many generations.
Products for shortcakes
The list of essential ingredients is small. You must prepare:
- Two yolks.
- 190 g of butter.
- 140 g of granulated sugar.
- A quarter teaspoon of soda.
- 280 g of flour.
- A tablespoon of vinegar.
Meringue Products
Here the list is very short, includes only 2 ingredients:
- Two squirrels.
- 170 g of sugar.
In addition, for cooking, you will need a large glass of chopped walnuts, half a can of condensed milk and half a pack of butter (for cream). As a decoration, you can take whole nuts, grated chocolate or butter cookies. The meringue recipe with nuts is good because you can always experiment. Sugar and proteins cannot be replaced with anything. If walnuts are not at hand, they can always be replaced with almonds or peanuts.
Cooking cakes
In a small bowl, rub the sugar and yolks with a spoon. Melt the butter and add it there. We “extinguish” soda with vinegar and send it to butter, sugar and egg yolks. Mix everything thoroughly until sugar is completely dissolved. Gradually introduce the flour. The result should be an elastic dough. We send him to rest in a cool place.
Making Meringue
Consider a meringue recipe with nuts. A photo showing the process of spreading cakes is presented above. Meringue is made exclusively from strong foam. Therefore, do not be lazy. Beat whites thoroughly with sugar until lush peaks appear. Only from a well-whipped mass will delicious meringues be obtained. According to the recipe, there should be 4 cakes, so the protein mass is also recommended to be divided into 4 parts.
How to understand that meringues are well cooked? Firstly, the dough should give characteristic "peaks" if you raise it on a spoon. Secondly, it will be very cool and strong in appearance.
While the protein dough is resting, we make cakes that are needed for the recipe for meringues with walnuts. We roll them out quite thinly. We spread on a baking sheet prepared in advance (it is better to cover it with special baking paper or foil). Now sprinkle the cake on top with a couple of tablespoons of chopped nuts. The next step is protein dough. We lay out one fourth of the meringues on the cake. Distribute it evenly. Sent to the oven for ten minutes. The temperature, as they say, is standard (180 degrees). We do the same with the remaining three cakes.
After all the procedures with pastries, we collect the cake. We put cakes on top of each other. The meringue recipe with nuts allows you to experiment with embellishment. For decor, you can use nuts, grated chocolate, fruits and so on.
Cake with nuts, meringues and chocolate.
Another popular dessert option. In this recipe, meringues with nuts will not use flour, that is, you do not need to bake any cakes from the dough. We will use only the most tender meringues, delicious nuts and mouth-watering chocolate.
Ingredients
The list of necessary products in this case is as follows:
- 210 grams of butter.
- 180 grams of sugar.
- 180 ml of milk.
- 35 ml of rum.
- 80 grams of powdered sugar.
- 90 grams of dark chocolate.
- 4 eggs.
- 60 grams of chopped nuts (walnuts or any other).
- 2 ml of lemon juice.
How to cook
We continue to study the recipe for meringue cake with nuts. Photos of the cooking steps are presented below. We break the eggs into a separate container, separating the yolks from the proteins, which it is desirable to cool in order to beat better. Add some lemon juice to them. We begin the process of whipping, gradually introducing granulated sugar into the mass. The ideal dough for meringues is a smooth, uniform, snow-white and strong mass that does not give smudges from a knife or spoon.
Add crushed walnuts or any other nuts that are at hand to the resulting dough. We lay out paper or foil on a baking sheet. Using a spoon or pastry bag, spread the meringues over the surface. If just small desserts are conceived, then it is better to use a confectionery syringe. If you are mastering a homemade recipe for meringues with nuts, which involves the preparation of pancakes from protein dough, then it is better to take a spoon. Gently spread the dough over the surface, forming small pancakes.
Place the baking sheet in the oven for two hours. The temperature should be maintained no higher and not lower than one hundred degrees.
The remaining yolks are ground with powdered sugar for the cream. Also, it should be added crushed on a grater or melted with a water bath chocolate. We thoroughly knead the mass, add milk. Whip again. Heat in a water bath, add butter to make the cream shiny and plastic. At the last stage of cooking, add rum. Put the cream in the refrigerator for twenty minutes.
A cake is made from baked cakes. Each layer is smeared with cream. Dessert with grated chocolate and nuts is decorated. You can leave a little protein cream and bake from it jewelry of various shapes (small balls, cones, flowers, leaves, hearts, etc.).
On a note
Having the proven meringue recipe on hand, any housewife will be able to prepare a delicious cake. Additional ingredients may vary. We need to add only a few useful tips that may be needed at the time of preparing the protein test:
- First, do not be lazy to beat meringues. Sometimes housewives sin on the ingredients or the recipe, but in fact they just do not bring the dough to the desired consistency. Remember about high and strong peaks, which must remain on the whisk after the procedure of mixing the ingredients.
- Secondly, never store finished meringue cake in the refrigerator. Meringue will simply lose its taste and crunch. To keep the dessert soft and crispy for a long time, place it in a paper bag. If this is not at hand, you can take ordinary baking paper.
- Thirdly, you can decorate the meringues with chocolate, not only pouring it on top, but also lowering the pieces of meringue into the melted chocolate mass. It is not only very tasty, but also beautiful.
- Fourth, do not be afraid to experiment with decorations for protein cakes. This can be not only nuts or melted chocolate, but also fruits, coconut, jelly, butter cream, marmalade, whipped cottage cheese, granola and many other delicious ingredients.
By the way, a colorful cake with meringues and nuts looks very original and interesting. The recipe is very simple. Making meringues of various shades is easy. To do this, you need to take special confectionery dyes that are safe and can be eaten. You can also use natural paint. For example, beetroot juice will give a rich purple-pink hue, and carrots will help to color the dessert orange. If you want to make a beige shade, then you can use ordinary cocoa.