Swiss meringue (wet meringue)

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Swiss meringue or wet meringue is a custard protein cream that, when properly made, always comes out tender, airy, smooth and shiny. It holds its shape unsurpassedly, is perfectly deposited using a pastry bag, and the finished products will be embossed and extremely beautiful. After some time, the surface of the meringue is covered with a thin crust, and inside the cream remains just as soft and airy.

You can decorate cupcakes and muffins with Swiss meringue (moist meringue) (you will get cupcakes that are so prestigious today). In addition, this custard protein cream performs excellently as a layer for sponge cakes and when decorating them. If you wish, you can even bake the cream in the oven and thus prepare airy meringue cookies or the base for the famous Pavlova cake.

The main difference between Italian meringue and French, for example, is that this cream is prepared by steeping egg whites with hot, sweet syrup. Thanks to this, the protein is not only disinfected, but also acquires the desired dense texture. Swiss meringue, in turn, is also made using the custard method, but unlike Italian meringue, there is no need to prepare the sweet syrup separately - the sugar immediately combines with the proteins.

Ingredients:

Making a dish step by step:

To make Swiss meringue (moist meringue), we need only two ingredients: egg whites and sweet sand. If desired, you can flavor this protein cream with vanilla or other flavorings, and also use food coloring. In addition, sometimes Swiss meringue contains salt and lemon juice, which are added in small quantities, but you can do without them.

Pour raw egg whites into a small, clean, dry saucepan or saucepan and immediately pour in all the sweet sand. I have 2 squirrels weighing 70 grams. Mix everything with a spoon, fork or whisk. Just mix - no need to beat anything yet.

Now we are making a water bath. It’s even better to prepare it in advance - pour water into a small saucepan, but in such a volume that the dishes with egg whites and sweets do not touch the surface of the water. Place the saucepan on the fire, let the water boil, then turn the heat to below medium. Place a saucepan with sugar and egg whites in the lower bowl. Stirring constantly (this is important!), it is necessary to warm the whites with sugar to a temperature of about 60 (in various sources the temperature ranges from 50 to 75) degrees. Because I have not yet acquired a culinary temperature indicator, I constantly rely on my tactile senses. Simply put, from time to time I put my finger (clean, believe me) into the saucepan and try to realize how hot it is. 60 degrees is hot for me, but still tolerable.

Stirring continuously, wait until all the sugar crystals are completely dissolved and the whites begin to become slightly cloudy. Now it's time to beat everything at low speed with a mixer. After 30 seconds, turn to medium speed and beat the whites with sugar until a smooth, airy mass is obtained. In other words, an extremely warm, not tight protein foam appears.

The base for the Swiss meringue is already quite warm, so remove the saucepan from the water bath. We need to stop the heat treatment of proteins, so it’s important to quickly cool them. To do this, place the saucepan in a larger bowl filled with cool water. Because my permanent assistant (planetary mixer) will then work; I simply transfer the protein foam into a bowl, which I cool in advance in the refrigerator.

Now beat the meringue at high speed with a mixer until the whites have completely cooled (this will take another 5-6 minutes).

The finished Swiss meringue comes out quite dense, thick, smooth and shiny. It holds its shape unsurpassed.

Using a spatula, scrape the white cream from the sides of the dish.

Now let’s prepare a pastry bag with the necessary nozzle and fill it with Swiss meringue.

If you don’t have a cooking bag, you can try depositing the cream using an ordinary plastic bag, cutting off one edge with scissors. But in this case, it is almost impossible to achieve a beautiful and beautiful decor for the finished baked goods. But layering the shortcakes or coating the cake is easy!

Swiss meringue holds its shape unsurpassedly and remains measured, just like another type of custard protein cream - Italian meringue. Most often they are used to decorate confectionery products, as well as in the production of mousses and butter creams.

French, Italian and Swiss meringue - how to prepare and what is the difference between them

There are three main types of meringue. They are all prepared according to different recipes and for different purposes. So what is the difference between French, Italian and Swiss meringue? And which one should be used in any given dessert? Let's talk about it.

French meringue

French meringue is the most traditional and most common of the above. It is crispy on the outside and a little soft or dry on the inside. The whipped mass quickly settles, so it must be prepared just before use, in other words, baking in the oven.

How to make French meringue

Proteins and sugar (from time to time sweet powder) will be useful for you. Typically, the working proportion is 2 parts sugar to 1 part protein. For example, if you use 100 g of protein, you will need 200 g of sugar.

To make French meringue, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar evenly, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. The mixture should become soft, airy and light.

You can pipe the resulting mass using a pastry bag or spoon. Form the meringues on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in an oven preheated to 90-100 °C for 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the product and the desired result. The meringues are ready when you simply remove them from the baking paper.

How to use French meringue

If two ready-made French meringues, piped from a pastry bag, are combined with each other, layered with cream or something similar, you get meringue . So says the distinguished publication Gastronomic Encyclopedia Larousse Gastronomique.

Meringue with chocolate cream

French meringue is best used for Alaska and Pavlova cakes, the English dessert Eton mess and for making dessert snowballs . After mixing with chopped nuts (usually almonds or hazelnuts), a base for dacquoise (nut sponge cake) .

Pavlova cake “Pear and chocolate”

Italian meringue

Italian meringue is the most measured and dense of the three. Thanks to its satin texture, it is very popular among confectioners.

How to make Italian meringue

Italian meringue is a sweet syrup (a “thick thread” mixture), heated to 118-120 °C and, still practically bubbling, added in a narrow stream to the whipped egg whites. The mixture must be constantly whisked until it cools almost completely. To make the best Italian meringue, be sure to use a kitchen temperature gauge.

Italian meringue is deposited onto a sponge cake from a pastry bag

The basic ratio for syrup is 3 parts sugar and 1 part water. Basic meringue recipe: 30-50 g of syrup for 1 large egg white.

How to use Italian meringue

This kind of meringue, in comparison with the French one, is not consumed without the help of others (as a ready-made dish) and it is needed for the most complex desserts, such as, for example, Alaska cake.

It is used to cover tarts, flans, and Polish brioche before being put into the oven. Add to mousses and souffles, and later freeze. Creams, sorbet and various berry and fruit foams are prepared on the basis of Italian meringue. And specifically, it covers lemon pies (or similar products), and later it is so beautifully fired with a special burner.

Key lime tartlet with meringue

Swiss meringue

The development of making Swiss meringue differs from others. A water bath and a kitchen temperature gauge are indispensable for her. The raw whipped mass is even smaller in size than the French one. It is the most compact, smooth and silky. After heat treatment, it is crispy on the outside and “chewy” (sticky and slightly stretchy) on the inside.

How to make Swiss meringue

Typically, the working proportion for making Swiss meringue is 2 parts sugar to 1 part protein. For example, if you use 90 g of protein, you will need 180 g of sugar. Beat the egg whites and sugar in a bowl in a water bath at 40°C to 55-60°C. Then remove the bowl from the heat and continue whisking until the mixture cools. Bake at 100 °C, 30 minutes for the smallest forms.

Swiss meringue is often flavored by adding, for example, vanilla or lemon zest. Natural additives must be introduced after heat treatment.

Huge Swiss meringues with nuts

How to use Swiss meringue

Huge meringues, approximately the size of a palm, which you often see in the windows of pastry shops - this is Swiss meringue. It is also often used to decorate Christmas rolls (“log”).

Swiss meringue holds its shape perfectly and the finished products are spectacular and embossed. After some time, the surface of the meringue becomes a little denser, but the mass inside remains the same airy. This can be used to decorate baked goods, for example, Easter cakes, muffins, cupcakes. Swiss meringue can also be used as a cream for layering biscuits.

Pumpkin pie with Swiss (wet) meringue from Olga Stikhareva

Swiss meringue is a meringue that keeps coming out!

Description

Swiss meringue is a wonderful dessert that can be enjoyed on its own or used for other desserts, the most complex ones. Swiss meringue is excellent as a decoration for cakes, pastries or Easter cakes. By the way, the famous Pavlova dessert is prepared using Swiss meringue.

Ingredients:

protein – 150 g.,
sugar – 255 gr.
sweet powder 45 gr.

How to cook:

Swiss meringue for me is first and foremost a decoration for my cakes. I tried all the meringues and stopped at the Swiss one. Not much more, I saw that if at the end of whipping you add a little sweet powder, the meringue comes out the most measured.

Therefore, I advise you to replace part of the sugar (15%) with sweet powder. For example, in this recipe for 150 gr. I used 255 grams of protein. sugar and 45 gr. sweet powder. I prepare the sweet powder myself, using a coffee grinder.

1. Swiss meringue is heated whites with sugar in a water bath up to 40º C. This is in this case if you send this meringue to dry in the oven. But if you want to use it as a decoration, in its raw form, then it is better to heat the whites to 60 ºС to protect yourself.

Pour the whites (150 ml) into a clean bowl and add sugar.

2. Build a water bath. Place the bowl with proteins and sugar in an already hot bath (the water should boil). But the most important thing is that the top bowl does not touch the water.

3. Send it all over medium heat. Whenever the proteins remain in a water bath, you must stir the proteins. How to find out the temperature of proteins if there is no temperature indicator? Dip two fingers into the egg whites and rub the egg white mixture between your fingers. If you can't feel the sugar crystals, remove the sweet whites from the water bath.

4. It is very important not to overheat the whites. They will be slightly hot to the touch.

5. Carefully pour the whites into the mixer bowl. Make sure the bottom of the outside of the bowl is dry. To do this, after you have removed the whites from the water bath, wipe the bowl.

6. We immediately begin to beat in the whites. During the initial beating, select the minimum speed. Beat for a couple of minutes, then increase and beat again for a couple of minutes and so on until you reach the highest speed.

When the whites turn white and reach soft peaks, as in the photo, add sweet powder. By the way, there is no need to sift it. Beat the almost finished meringue for another minute.

Well, the Swiss meringue is ready.

Swiss meringue meringue recipe

I will make meringue from Swiss meringue. To do this, I will prepare baking sheets with Teflon mats. But you can also use parchment.

From this portion of meringue I will prepare a number of types of meringues. In other words, I’ll make meringue on sticks, just cut out the squiggles and make carrots.

For colored meringues I use food coloring. I won’t color the meringue separately, but will run a narrow line of dye along the entire length of the pastry bag.

I’ll put out this kind of meringue. They look extremely beautiful when I decorate men's chocolate cakes.

Friends, maybe you are curious about how I decorate cakes? Maybe anyone is interested in how to create beautiful drips on a cake? Ask, I will answer all your questions!

For meringues on sticks I use a closed star attachment. I insert the skewers into the deposited meringue and dry it with the sticks.

But in order to create meringue carrots, you will need an open star attachment with meringue colored greenish. And I will plant the orange meringue from a bag without a nozzle. The main thing is that the exit is not extremely large.

First we make a curl of greenish meringue, then with radial movements we plant the orange meringue overlapping the greenish one. It seems that I wrote it clearly. If anything is unclear, let me know)))

I will dry two baking sheets with meringues at once, but without convection. To make the meringue turn white, do not raise the temperature above 85ºC. At the temperature given for us, I dried the meringue for 1.5 hours.

The size of the meringue also plays a role. The largest meringues take a little longer to dry.

One hundred percent finished meringue simply lags behind the mat. But don’t rush to take the hot meringue out of the oven; let it cool one hundred percent in the oven.

After this, the meringue can be immediately consumed for its intended purpose, or it can be sent for storage in a container or bag, which should be tightly closed. The shelf life of meringue is no more than 2 weeks.

All about Swiss meringue cream (wet meringue)

Undeservedly relegated to the background, it was the first of the meringues, and only then such varieties as French and Italian arose.

Meanwhile, using the Swiss meringue method is extremely comfortable, and it is especially suitable for novice confectioners!

Swiss meringue is actually “two in one”. She has an extremely fascinating property. If you heat the whites to a temperature of 35-40 degrees C (until the sugar dissolves and the whites become tangibly warm), then remove from heat and beat until stiff peaks, we will get a mass suitable for baking airy cakes and cakes - quite similar French merengue.

If we heat the whites with sugar to 60 degrees C, without ceasing to beat, we will get a mass of brewed protein, suitable for decorating cakes, creams and mousses.

In this case, Swiss meringue has an advantage over Italian.

Cooking a syrup of suitable thickness, and then brewing the whites with it correctly is a difficult task. In addition, to make a good Italian meringue, it is better to have a stand mixer, since it is difficult to beat the egg whites without holding and turning the bowl.

Unlike French meringue, the risk of adding sugar very early or in very large portions is reduced to zero.

Heating Swiss meringue during the beating process increases the vibration of albumin molecules, making it easier to change the natural parameters of proteins.

Immediately, the sugar increases the viscosity of the proteins and the thermal energy from the heating encourages the sugar, water and protein molecules to move closer to each other and form hydrogen bonds together.

These reasons will partly compensate for the difficulties associated with the initial addition of sugar to unbeaten egg whites.

Recipe:

Remember, once upon a time in childhood there were baskets with jam and protein cream? The cream was the softest and very, very light, slightly sour, with a crust on top. I wanted to swallow it completely, the entire balloon.

I remember that I didn’t adore either the basket or the jam, but only this cream. This cream was also in puff tubes, and they also used it to make legs for the “mushrooms.”

Protein cream is not bad in all respects. It is low in calories, extremely tasty, holds its shape perfectly (even flowers are made from it), is made simply and simply from improvised goods, does not melt in the sun and does not spoil without refrigeration.

Yes, yes, cupcakes with protein cream can just sit on a dish in the kitchen, and the cream will not sour, it will only dry out and become like marshmallows.

Swiss meringue is usually used to decorate tarts and pies. For example, a sour apple pie will be a million times tastier with a top of sweet, tender meringue.

The ingredients for Swiss meringue are simple and everyone has them at home. All you need is proteins, sugar and citric acid.

The essence of Swiss meringue is that we beat the whites, immediately heating them. Whipped whites are brewed, become measured, dense, do not flow, do not fall off. Also, do not be afraid of salmonella; when heated, it all dies.

Ingredients:

Manufacturing method:

Now we will organize a water bath. In a saucepan with water on top, place another, smallest, saucepan or bowl so that the bottom of the upper saucepan touches the bubbling water.

Specifically, there is no need to immerse the pan in water halfway. This will overheat the meringue and could scald you.

In this top pan or bowl we put our ingredients, take a hand mixer and start whisking. We beat for quite a long time, I’ll be honest with you. About fifteen minutes. We vigorously move the mixer in a circle so that all the whites warm up moderately and do not stick to the bottom.

We finish whipping when the meringue becomes so dense that it begins to follow the whisk and open the bottom of the pan or bowl. If you can see the bottom of the pan, the meringue is ready. Remove it from the heat and beat for another 5 minutes until it cools.

If the meringue is not cooked enough, it will be viscous, will not hold its shape well, and will not dry out in the air. If you overcook it, it will dry out very quickly. If you plan to create a beautiful decor from meringue, then it is important to cook the meringue correctly.

In all other applications, slightly undercooking or overcooking will not be fatal.

We transfer the finished meringue into a pastry bag with a suitable nozzle and decorate our baskets, cupcakes and cakes!