We have known the airy dessert made from egg whites since childhood, and since childhood we have remembered meringues as a magnificent crunchy cookie, now skillful chefs have learned to make magnificent air cakes with meringues. We’ll talk about them, share the recipe for meringue cakes at home, talk about different fillings for them and show design ideas.
History of Air Biscuits
Before we start studying cake recipes, let's talk about the history of meringues. The names of the airy goodies from French translate as "kiss" and, however, the cookies are very tender, crispy. The main version of the origin of the dessert says that a confectioner from Switzerland beat whites with sugar and baked in the oven, he gave the new dessert a name in honor of the city of Meiringen.
There is another version of the origin of meringues: the first mention of this dessert dates back to the end of the 17th century; it was found in the cookbook of a certain Massialo. It was said that because of the speed of cooking, meringues became a favorite of the kitchen of highly respected people. And because of the simplicity and accessibility of the ingredients, the dessert migrated from the royal tables to cafes and restaurants of that time.
Meringues can be served as a separate dessert: melting in your mouth, tender, airy, it captures the hearts of everyone who at least once tasted this wonderful dessert. But in tandem with the filling: berry, chocolate, with cream, meringue is incredibly tasty.
The recipe for making meringues is incredibly simple, so let's begin our acquaintance with recipes for meringue cakes, we will start directly with the meringue recipe.
Methods for making meringues
There are several ways to prepare meringues, we will talk about three main ones.
The first method is called "French". Proteins are whipped with a pinch of salt with the gradual addition of powdered sugar until the necessary condition. These meringues turn out incredibly airy, melt in your mouth, but are only suitable for simple cakes.
The "Italian" way is to add thick, hot sugar syrup. Most often, such a cream is mixed with butter and missed cakes, stuffed horns and rolls. From this mass, it is easiest to make a cream decoration on a cake, since the cream does not lose its shape and with the help of a pastry bag and a pair of nozzles you will get incredible decorations.
But the most delicious way - “Swiss”, meringue is cooked in a water bath, due to which it increases in one and a half to two times in volume. It is convenient to make stable ornate patterns from the cream.
Cooking meringues
Since we will be preparing a kind of meringue cakes, we turn to the first method.
First, prepare the dishes in which you will beat the egg whites, wash the deep bowl, dry with a clean, dry towel. Take this into consideration, as excess fat in the container may prevent the protein cream from rising.
Many recipes require the use of only fresh eggs, and this is understandable when you prepare a cream of proteins, you do not expose the eggs to any heat treatment, which means the protein will go raw in food. But for meringues, eggs of a week ago are best suited: the protein becomes drier during storage, which means it will be much easier to beat it.
Remove the eggs from the refrigerator before making the meringues. Eggs should be at room temperature. Cold eggs beat faster, but it loses its bulk and density when baked.
Speaking of sugar, try to use powder, not sugar, because the finer the grains, the more gentle and light the mass will turn out. Insoluble sugar crystals will pull the mass down, and sugar crunching on the teeth will not give much pleasure.
Beat the whites first at minimum speed until a bubbly foam forms. After it, the speed can be increased to a maximum. Add sugar gradually, on a teaspoon at regular intervals. Patience and everything will turn out.
Egg preparedness
Beat the squirrels until peaks reach for the whisk. Old cookbooks say that before you start beating, you can add a pinch of salt, and in the end for the stability of the protein mass with citric acid, but with modern mixers, the need to add lemon or salt has disappeared.
Check the readiness of whipped cream by turning the plate. The foam will remain in the same position, motionless.
Baking Methods and Storage
Cookies 1-2 are baked at a temperature of 80-110 degrees, cooks jokingly call meringues "forgotten cookies", but you try not to forget about it. By the way, do not open the oven while baking.
They also offer to bake at 200 degrees for five minutes, and then lower the temperature to 100 and wait 40 minutes.
If your meringues do not become the basis of meringue cake, then take care of the storage of dessert. Store meringues in paper bags. Please do not store them in the refrigerator, there they will become damp, lose their shape and taste. It is better to sprinkle them with chocolate, cover with icing, fold and fold into a paper bag or bag.
Pavlova
Cake Pavlova, named after a magnificent ballerina, conquered the world. It is so tender, so tasty and sweet, meringue cake is hidden in the mouth, the cream is soft and fragrant. So, let's begin our acquaintance with the recipe for meringue cake at home with berries and whipped cream.
After whipping the protein mass with sugar, add 3 teaspoons of starch sifted through a sieve. Mix gently.
How many shortcakes do you want to use for your cake? We suggest trying with two. Take parchment paper, cut two pieces of the desired length and draw two identical large circles on them. Line the parchment on the baking sheets and without going out of the circle, put equal parts of the mass on two parchments, make sides. Bake your pastries for an hour and a half at 100 degrees.
For two cakes, you will need 6-8 egg whites.
Filling
While your crusts are cooling, do cream, prepare berries and decorations. You can either buy whipped cream or whip them yourself with sugar and vanilla.
Berries: Rinse strawberries, raspberries, black currants, blueberries and or strawberries well. Cut strawberries into 2-3 plates.
Leave some berries on the sauce. Grind them in a blender, put in a pan, put on a small fire and heat. To make the sauce thicker, add a teaspoon of starch. Add sugar if desired. Without sugar, the sauce will have a sour taste - very spicy for a sweet cake.
The sauce can be replaced with jam, jam, berry syrup.
Now that all the ingredients are ready, collect your cake. On the first cake in the center, put the cream on top of different berries and a thin stream of sauce. You can pour the sauce on the sides, but carefully, just a little so that it does not spread.
Put one more crust on top, cover with cream and spread the berries. Lay out the pattern or in a specific sequence. Garnish with syrup, a sprig of mint or rosemary, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Pavlova’s cake should not be stored in the refrigerator and should be eaten immediately. Therefore, if you are waiting for guests, pre-bake cakes, and collect it before serving.
Here you can get a meringue cake. Photo causes incredible appetite.
Count ruins
Of course, you have tried this cake with sponge cakes more than once, but you certainly have not heard the ruins of meringue earl ruins about the most delicious cake . It is very tender, incredibly sweet and contains far fewer calories than in a regular cake. We must introduce you to this cake.
It looks amazing, and although it takes a very long time to prepare, do not spare the time, this delicacy is real bliss.
So, whipping the whites with sugar, put them on the parchment using a pastry bag or a file with a cut corner of small cookies with peaks. We bake it.
Beat soft butter with condensed milk at a low speed until a homogeneous mass, gradually the speed can be increased, but do not overdo it, the butter may heat up and exfoliate from the condensed milk.
Now we collect our ruins in a meringue cake. To do this, we need a beautiful plate in which the cake will be served. We spread the meringues around and coat everything with cream. There you can put the fillings to taste, we offer a few bananas, nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, slightly chopped), raisins and a thin stream of melted chocolate or chocolate paste. For lovers - peanut.
So lay out several layers, building a slide. Grease the bottom of each cookie with cream.
Decorating the ruins is also simple. Melt a bar of chocolate or use a paste. The remaining cream can be poured onto the top of the cake, allowing it to flow in different directions. Pour the melted chocolate cake and sprinkle with nuts.
You can use the cream for the ruins any, custard or just boiled condensed milk, optionally add different fruits and experiment. And we will proceed to the next meringue cake recipe.
Snickers
This is one of the most common bars, loved by children and adolescents for viscous filling and nuts. Snickers cake with meringues will be appreciated by your homemade people , because it is just as sweet, with lots of nuts, condensed milk and incredibly tender due to meringues.
Shortbread dough acts here as a cake. So let's start making a cake with it. Separate the whites from the yolks and put them in the refrigerator. Beat the yolks and a little more than half the sugar with a mixer until airy. Soften the margarine in a water bath and send to the egg mass, you can add a little sour cream, a couple of spoons for puffiness, soda, about 1/3 teaspoon, put out with vinegar.
Sift two cups of flour into a bowl with mass and knead well. Wrap the finished dough in cling film and put in the refrigerator for half an hour.
While the dough is resting in the refrigerator, prepare the protein mass for the meringues.
Use the longest baking tray. Spread the dough evenly over the mold. Lay meringues on top of the dough layer. But not in an even layer, but with light waves, for this, attach a spoon to the mass and pull it up. Korzhik baked at 10 degrees. When the meringue dries, turn off the oven and let the dough stand there.
Grind the peeled nuts in a blender or manually, but not very finely. Choose nuts to taste.
Beat a packet of butter with a can of boiled condensed milk.
Cut still warm cake into three equal cake layers and begin to stack your cake with meringue. Put your shortcake in a dish or on a tray and put half of the condensed milk cream on top. Do this very carefully so as not to break the meringues. Sprinkle with nuts. For splendor, you can put raisins, dried apricots or prunes. Put a second one on top and grease with the remaining cream. If desired, you can leave a little on the sides.
We don’t need to lubricate the third cake, we sprinkle it with nuts, put a few whole and pour the melted chocolate between the waves. Caramel sauce is also handy.
Let the cake soak at room temperature, so do not put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Here is such an incredible sweetness, please your loved ones with sweet meringue cake.
Enjoy your meal!
It is very simple to make a cake with meringues at home, the cooking process is incredibly simple, decorating this magnificent creation is a pleasure. How tender he is, what a crisp meringue! Be sure to try making meringues and cakes with them.