How to cook meringue in the oven at home. How to make meringue in the microwave. Lemon meringue roll

The original French dessert under the loud name “meringue” has spread all over the world and is firmly rooted in many countries. The most delicate airy structure, exquisite taste and pleasant aftertaste do not leave adults and children indifferent. Meringue is served in many famous restaurants and used to decorate cakes and pastries. Making dessert at home is rightfully considered a valuable skill. If you want to please your guests, feel free to choose a recipe and begin the procedure. Let's consider only the most delicious options.

Meringue: a classic of the genre

Professional confectioners have developed a basic technology for making meringue at home. Everything else is just variations.

• chicken egg white - 3 pcs.
• powdered sugar (beetroot or cane) - 165 gr.
• citric acid - 2 pinches

1. To prepare the meringue, only fresh eggs of the first category are used, which must be placed in the refrigerator 2 hours before being ready. Separate the yolks from the whites, place the latter in a deep bowl. Important! Separate the whites into a separate container, then transfer them to a common mixing bowl. Such a move will eliminate the possibility of partial yolk getting in if it breaks.
2. When all the chilled whites are in the container, turn the mixer on medium power and beat for 10 minutes. You need to get a thick, dense foam.
3. Once this happens, prepare the powdered sugar. Scoop it up with a tablespoon and carefully pour it into the mixture, while stirring with a mixer at low power. Whisk until the granules are completely dissolved. Important! For 1 egg white there are 55 grams. powdered sugar. If you are preparing meringue for a large company, calculate the required proportions for a specific case.
4. When the egg-sugar mixture is ready, proceed to the next step. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, when the time is up, take it out and beat again. With each minute that passes, the foam will begin to turn white and bubble; at this moment you need to add 2 pinches of citric acid and mix again.
5. Beat the meringue with a mixer for about 3 minutes at maximum speed. A visual inspection will help determine the readiness of the composition: remove the arrow of the device from the mass, evaluate the density of the foam. The air peak should retain its shape without dripping. You can also add a tablespoon to the composition; the foam will not fall off from it.
6. After preparing the cream, take out the baking sheet and line it with baking paper or foil. At this time, preheat the oven to 160 degrees, proceed to the following manipulations.
7. Scoop the meringue with a tablespoon and form it into a ball on the surface of the baking sheet. Since the mass tends to increase by 2-2.5 times, calculate the distance between the bezels based on the knowledge gained.
8. After placing the air mass on baking paper or foil, place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 160 degrees. Immediately reduce the heat to 130-140 degrees, otherwise the meringues will set on the crust, but will not bake inside. Cooking time is a quarter of an hour, no more.
9. After the specified period has expired, turn off the oven and do not open the door. The meringues should be kept inside until completely cooled.

Important!
There is another cooking technology: set the temperature to 110 degrees, bake the cream for 1 hour.

• chicken protein - 3 pcs.
• granulated sugar - 145 gr.
• sesame - 35 gr.
• dark chocolate - 55 gr.
• citric acid - 10-12 gr.

Citric acid can be replaced with citrus fruit juice, increasing the amount by 3 times (about 35 ml).

1. Prepare a non-stick frying pan and heat it over high heat. Add sesame seeds, fry for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. When the product turns golden, pour it into a dry bowl and let cool.
2. Grate a bar of dark chocolate on a coarse grater or chop it in another convenient way (replace it with milk if desired).
3. Place the chicken whites in a deep container, turn on the mixer at maximum speed and beat the eggs into a thick foam (beating duration varies between 5-7 minutes).
4. As soon as the mass rises and thickens, pour in lemon juice or add acid, while continuing to work with the mixer. Begin adding granulated sugar slowly while stirring at medium speed.
5. When the mass becomes dense and thick, turn off the device. Add the roasted sesame seeds, stir with a fork, and add the grated chocolate. Mix the mixture thoroughly until it reaches a dense and thick consistency.
6. Preheat the oven to 145-150 degrees. At this time, take out a baking sheet and line it with baking paper. Pour the meringue into the sleeve, squeeze out in small portions, keeping a distance of 5-7 cm between the balls. If you wish, you can distribute the product with a regular tablespoon, as in the previous recipe.
7. Place the mixture in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes. After this time, do not open the door, let the dessert cool. If desired, you can decorate the top of the treat with whipped cream and a slice of strawberry.

• granulated sugar or powdered sugar - 275 gr.
• egg white - 5 pcs.
• chopped salt - 1 pinch
• citric acid - 1 pinch
• butter - 115 gr.
• condensed milk (boiled) - 150 gr.
• milk chocolate - 100 gr.

1. Place chicken whites in the refrigerator for 40 minutes. Later, take them out and move them into a deep container. Add citric acid and beat with a mixer for 10 minutes. Ultimately, you should get a stable, thick foam.
2. Begin to carefully add granulated sugar (it is better to replace it with powder). In this case, you need to simultaneously beat the mixture at medium speed. When the crystals are completely dissolved, increase the power and bring the mixture to a shiny state.
3. Check the composition for density: tilt the bowl, evaluate the consistency. Foam should not leak out. Place it in a pastry sleeve and line a baking sheet with baking foil.
4. Preheat the oven to 50 (!) degrees. Squeeze out small balls, keeping a distance of about 5 cm between the meringues. Place the baking sheet in the oven for 3.5 hours until the mass dries completely and becomes crispy.
5. Start preparing the cream. Cut the butter into small pieces and leave at room temperature to soften. After this, grind the boiled condensed milk with butter until smooth, beat.
6. Break the chocolate bar into squares, place them in an enamel pan and melt in a steam bath. It should remain liquid throughout the cooking process.
7. Dip the flat part of the meringue into the chocolate and do the same with the other meringues. Place them on a plate and refrigerate for 1 hour.
8. At the end of the period, take two meringues, pour cream of butter and condensed milk between them, glue the two parts into one. Place the dessert in the refrigerator again and wait until it completely hardens (about half an hour).

Serve the delicacy chilled, otherwise it will soften.

To prepare dessert using traditional French technology, please read the important tips regarding the procedure.

1. At the slightest hint of moisture, the dessert begins to become soggy, as a result of which the structure and overall impression of consumption are distorted. The recommendation relates to the choice of utensils: mix the ingredients only in dry bowls, water ingress is unacceptable.
2. Before placing the ingredients in a mixing container, degrease the container. Soak a cosmetic swab in vodka or rubbing alcohol and wipe the bowl.
3. If you don't have a mixer, use a regular whisk. However, it is unlikely that it will be possible to achieve the desired consistency, since the mass will be difficult to beat. To give the whites the necessary fluffiness, wipe the bowl with a slice of lemon or a cotton pad soaked in citrus juice.

It is important to understand that the meringue does not need to be baked, you just need to dry it. In this case, it is necessary to observe the temperature regime and the holding time of the mass in the oven. If your oven has a conventional function (moisture extraction), use it.

Video: recipe for making crispy meringue

French meringue cake (meringue) can be fragile and crumbly, tender and melting in the mouth, soft on the inside and crispy on the outside - it is no coincidence that the French called this airy dessert “kiss,” emphasizing its sweetness and sophistication. is a protein cake, and meringue is a protein cream from which meringues are made or which is used as a filling for confectionery products. Due to the fact that meringue contains a small amount of ingredients, it seems that it is quite simple to prepare, but meringue is a capricious dessert that sometimes behaves unpredictably. Not every cook (especially a beginner) knows how to prepare meringues and meringues correctly, so it’s worth first mastering a few techniques that will help you get a real French dessert without flaws.

Cooking meringues at home: the subtleties of French culinary art

Let's talk about how to bake meringue at home, which recipe to choose and how to achieve perfection in the art of making protein dough, which should be airy, foamy, light and at the same time dense, plastic and well-retained. Knowing the secrets of cooking, you will get beautiful and tasty fluffy cakes and other desserts from egg whites whipped with sugar and baked in the oven.

French, Italian and Swiss method of making meringue

There are three ways to prepare meringue - French, Italian and Swiss. The French prepare the protein mass very simply - beat the whites with a pinch of salt, gradually adding powdered sugar until it holds its shape perfectly. Meringues prepared according to the French recipe are tender and airy, but they are only suitable for simple-shaped cakes, since graceful and ornate roses can blur and lose their original appearance.

Instead of sugar, Italians add thick and hot sugar syrup to the protein mass, pouring it in a thin stream and not stopping whipping for a second. The soft and tasty cream, which turns out a little custard due to the hot syrup, is used to coat cakes, fill tubes and eclairs. The cream is easily mixed with butter to add new shades of flavor, unlike French meringue, which, when combined with fats, immediately loses its shape.

The most masterful meringue is prepared according to a Swiss recipe, since it is made in a water bath, and the mass increases in volume several times. The thick and elastic mass produces fancy cookies and ornate cream patterns on cakes that do not blur and look very impressive.

The subtleties of making perfect meringue

The dishes and kitchen utensils that you will use to beat egg whites must be perfectly clean and free of grease. The fact is that fat deteriorates the quality of the protein dough and prevents the meringue from maintaining its shape, so before cooking, you should pour boiling water with the addition of lemon juice over the dishes.

Many chefs recommend using only very fresh eggs, which is understandable if you are going to make protein cream, that is, eat proteins without heat treatment. To prepare meringues, it is better to take eggs that are a week old, since the egg whites become drier during storage and are much easier to whip.

For meringue, warm, rather than chilled, whites are more suitable, the temperature of which is 22-25 °C. Cold whites whip faster, but the mass turns out to be less voluminous, denser and unstable during baking. Warm whites give a fluffy airy mass with a stable texture, as a result of which the products rise perfectly in the oven, bake well and keep their shape.

Try not to use sugar, but powdered sugar, because the finer the grains, the better the protein mass is whipped, making it more tender and light, and not completely dissolved sugar can squeak on your teeth, which is not always pleasant when tasting a dessert.

At the very beginning, the speed of whipping the whites should be slow to saturate the mass with oxygen, and when foam with bubbles appears, the speed can be increased to maximum.

Add sugar gradually - 1 tsp at a time. at regular intervals. If you add sugar right away, the meringues will settle after baking. Please be patient so that the result meets your expectations!

To get a crispy meringue, beat the egg whites until they reach sharp peaks - when the mixture stretches behind the whisk, forming beak-like angles. If the white cream forms round peaks on the whisk that gradually fall off, then you are dealing with soft peaks, ideal for making delicate cakes or sponges.

Old cookbooks advise adding a pinch of salt to the whites at the beginning of beating, and a few drops of lemon juice at the end to form a fluffy and voluminous mass. With the advent of modern mixers and blenders, the need to add these products has disappeared, so you can discard them. If the recipe calls for adding flour and starch to the protein mass, sift them to saturate them with air so that the dough does not lose its airiness.

It is better to bake meringue on pastry paper at a temperature of 80-110 °C for 1-2 hours. For this reason, the French jokingly call meringues “forgotten cookies,” but try not to forget about your dessert so that it does not become too dry. The finished cakes should be crispy, without a dark crust, and if you prefer more delicate and soft meringues, bake them at a temperature of 150 ° C until light yellow. You can bake the meringue for several minutes at a temperature of 200 °C, and then reduce the heat to 100 °C and bake for another half hour.

Do not open the oven while the meringues are baking, otherwise they will fall off and turn into cakes. It is better to check the products for readiness after they have cooled, since a warm cake inside may seem damp. Do not store meringues in the refrigerator to prevent them from getting soggy!

Based on meringue, you can prepare many delicious confectionery products with the addition of chocolate, marmalade, jelly, coffee, fruits, berries, curd cheeses, milk, whipped cream, nuts and spices. Meringue is poured with chocolate glaze, served with ice cream, marshmallows, vanilla, butter or butter cream, used as a filling for pancakes and sweet sandwiches, cakes and small petit fours. Meringue cakes are like light clouds that melt in your mouth, leaving a delicately sweet aftertaste that you want to experience again and again. Prepare airy meringues and enjoy magnificent French desserts!

You've probably seen, tried, or made scary brown meringue yourself. This is a catastrophe. Natural classic meringue should be snow-white. I myself often come across a lot of recipes on the Internet for so-called “meringue” with a slight brown tint. Don't trust them. This is not meringue. These are already cookies. The moment the meringue changed color, it stopped being a meringue and became a cookie.

! Remember the main rule of the oven: the meringue is not baked, the meringue is dried.

Meringue is a French crispy cake made from meringue. Meringue is whipped egg whites with sugar. Meringue can be made from any type of meringue. There are three main varieties:

1. French- the simplest and most common way to beat egg whites. Just beat the whites, gradually adding sugar.
2. Swiss- a more stable meringue. Here the whites are whipped in a water bath.
3. Italian- the most stable and most labor-intensive type of meringue. Prepared with sugar syrup.

For meringue, I prefer to make Swiss meringue. This meringue holds its shape perfectly, it is more stable compared to the French one, but the process is not as energy-intensive as in the Italian one.

The main thing

What should you do to make the meringue white, crispy and beautiful? Here are my 10 commandments.

1. The ideal ratio of sugar proteins in meringue is: 1 part protein to 2 parts sugar. That is, ideally you need to weigh the whites and take exactly 2 times more sugar.
2. Separate the whites from the yolks while still cold, immediately after refrigeration (this makes them easier to separate). And then leave the whites for 30 minutes at room temperature, covered with cling film.
3. In order for the whites to whip into a stiff foam, all utensils used for whipping the whites must be crystal clean and dry.
4. For a water bath, it is advisable to use metal or glass heat-resistant dishes.
5. To stabilize meringue, pastry chefs use cream of tartar. If you don't have one, you can replace it with a few drops of lemon juice.
6. The oven temperature with this method of preparing meringues should be no more than 100º. If the oven is powerful, then to avoid darkening it is better to reduce the temperature to 80 and increase the drying time to 2-3 hours.
7. The drying time for meringues directly depends on their size. As a rule, this process takes 1 hour or more.
8. Do not open the oven during the first hour of drying! Otherwise, the meringues may crack or fall off.
9. The easiest way to check the readiness of the meringue is to tear off one meringue from the baking sheet; if it comes off easily, then the meringue is ready. And if it sticks, it needs a few more minutes.
10. Once the meringues are cooked, do not remove them from the oven immediately. Leave them in the oven overnight to properly dry out the inside. Well, or at least for 1 hour.

And the recipe for meringue on Swiss meringue

We will need:

• egg whites, room temperature - 225 gr. (7 pcs.)
• sugar - 450 gr. (2 glasses)
• lemon juice or cream of tartar - ½ tsp. (optional)
• a few drops of vanilla or any other essence (optional)
• a few drops of food coloring (optional)

Before you start making meringue, carefully read the 10 rules for making meringue ⇑

From these ingredients you will get a lot of meringues. Therefore, for the first time, I advise you to take 3-4 protein, weigh them and add exactly 2 times more sugar, that is, 120 grams. protein take 240 g. Sahara.

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 100º. Line a baking tray with baking paper or a silicone mat.
2. Place the whites, sugar and essence in a heatproof bowl and place it in a water bath. The water should not touch the bowl!
3. Constantly stirring with a whisk, heat the whites until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 4 minutes (wipe the protein mass between your fingers - you should not feel the grains) - this is very important!
4. After the sugar has dissolved, remove the whites from the water bath, add lemon juice or cream of tartar and begin beating with a mixer at low speed for 4 minutes.
5. Then increase the speed of the mixer (to maximum if the mixer power is less than 500 W, and to the penultimate scale if the mixer power is more than 500 W) and beat for another 3-4 minutes or until the mixer bowl cools to room temperature.
6. If desired, add a couple of drops of essence or food coloring and beat for another 1 minute.
7. Transfer the meringue into a pastry bag and place the meringue on the prepared baking sheet.
8. Dry the meringue for 1 to 4 hours (depending on size), then turn off the oven and leave the meringue to dry overnight.

Swiss meringue is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

But I thought carefully and decided that for the especially lazy, I need to write down the simplest recipe for meringue on French meringue. These bezeshki turn out crispy both inside and out, but the taste is in no way inferior to the above))

Here's my perfect meringue recipe using a simple French meringue.

Compound:

• egg whites - 115 gr. (4 things.)
• lemon juice - a few drops
• sugar - 115 gr.
• powdered sugar - 115 gr.

Cooking method:

1. In a clean, dry bowl, with a mixer at medium speed, beat the whites until soft peaks form, i.e. the mass should turn white and hold on the whisk when lifted. Add a few drops of lemon juice.
2. Then increase the speed of the mixer and, continuing to beat, gradually add sugar, adding 1 tablespoon at a time and beating for 3-4 seconds after each portion of sugar.
3. When the mass becomes shiny and glossy, and the peaks hold their shape, turn off the mixer and sift 1/3 of the powdered sugar into the whites, mix gently and mix in the remaining two parts of powdered sugar in the same way.
4. The rest is the same as last time: place the meringue on a baking sheet using a pastry bag and bake at 100ºC for 1 hour.
5. After an hour, try removing one meringue from the baking sheet: if it comes off easily, then you can turn off the oven; if it sticks, leave it for another 30-45 minutes, or even 1 hour (this will depend on the size of your specific meringues).
   

   Another sure way to check the meringue for doneness is to break it in half: if it breaks and crunches, then it’s ready.

6. The finished French meringue can be left in the turned off oven overnight, or you can take it out immediately and cool.

Store the finished pies in an airtight container (not in the refrigerator!) at room temperature for a week, or even more. To be honest, I keep them for months.

Ah, meringue!.. Tender, crispy, crumbly or, on the contrary, soft, like cotton candy inside and with a crispy golden brown crust on the outside... Mmmm, pleasure! No wonder the sophisticated French called this delicacy “kiss” (from the French Baiser).

In pre-revolutionary Russia, meringue was called the “Spanish wind”. It is also called meringue, and it is believed that it is more correct to call this dessert that way, because meringue is a protein cream, and meringue is the same cream, only dried. However, let's leave linguistics aside and try to prepare this amazing dessert.

In general, the composition of meringue is simple, like everything ingenious: proteins and sugar. Sometimes nut flour, starch, but this is no longer so significant. However, a short list of ingredients does not mean that preparing a fragile dessert is easy and simple. Meringue is a delicate substance, capricious, like a spoiled lady, and can present many surprises and disappointments to an inexperienced cook.

Therefore, before you open the refrigerator and take out a tray of eggs, arm yourself with theoretical knowledge of the subject and strictly follow the strict rules for preparing meringue, and then everything will work out for you!

You can prepare meringue in three ways.

French way

This is the simplest, it can be used for trying to master this dish, as well as for making simple meringue shapes, without subtle patterns. The protein mass turns out fluffy, strong, but with clearly visible bubbles, so set aside there is no point in putting masterly roses on a baking sheet; they will “float”, if not immediately, then during baking. Therefore, you need to prepare cakes from it in the oven or in the microwave without any special tricks - just oval cakes.

Ingredients:

• Egg whites- 2 pcs
• Salt - a pinch
• Granulated sugar or powdered sugar

Here's how to prepare meringue in French: Pour the chilled whites of two eggs into a saucepan or bowl, add a pinch of salt to them and begin to beat with a mixer or whisk (in general, this can even be done with a fork, but it will take a long time) until strong foam. Then we begin to gradually add powdered sugar or sugar to them, continuing to beat. You will need approximately two hundred grams of powder per protein. However, the exact amount of powder is determined “by eye”, since it must be added to the proteins until a certain point - the appearance of the so-called “hard peaks”. This is when the cream does not fall from a raised mixer or whisk, and the peaks (“icicles” of meringue) do not bend under their own weight.

Italian way

making meringue differs from the French one in that instead of sugar, rather steeply boiled sugar syrup is poured into the whipped whites. The syrup is poured in hot, in a thin stream, and the beating of the whites never stops. until the entire mass has cooled.

This method is ideal for making creams - boiling syrup brews the whites, and the resulting cream does not fall off. You can layer cakes with this cream, make pastries with it, fill tubes or eclairs, and decorate any dessert.

In addition, cream prepared in Italian mixes perfectly with butter, while “regular” meringue flows from contact with fat.

Ingredients:

• Egg whites - 2 pcs.
• Sugar syrup - approximately 300 g
• Citric acid or lemon juice

First, cook the sugar syrup: two parts sugar, one part water, a little lemon juice. For a meringue made from two proteins, you need to take two hundred grams of sugar per one hundred grams of water. Beat the whites into a strong foam and, continuing to beat, pour hot syrup into them in a thin stream. Whisk the cream until the mixture has cooled completely.

Swiss way

Preparing meringue is the most time-consuming, due to the fact that you will have to build a steam bath. But the meringue prepared this way is the strongest, most stable and dense. From the steamed mass you can make the most imaginative cookies, and they dry very quickly, faster than all others, and you can draw beautiful complex patterns with it.

Ingredients:

• Egg whites
• Granulated sugar
• Lemon juice

The cooking method is as follows: Place a bowl of egg whites and sugar over a pan of boiling water (one egg white - one glass of sugar). The bottom of the pan should only be heated by steam and not come into contact with water. We begin to beat the whites first at the lowest speed of the mixer until all the sugar has dissolved. And after that, increase the speed and beat until tender, resulting in a white, dense, thick cream.

So, the cooking method has been chosen, and you are determined to surprise your guests with wonderful meringues. Stop for a few more minutes and remember a few very important rules, without which you will not succeed.

Rules for preparing “Merringue”

The optimal ratio of proteins to sugar is 1:2.6. In order to bake one tray of small cakes, I take 3 eggs and 0.5 tbsp. Sahara.

Proteins must be the freshest! Only fresh proteins are able to retain air and give a dense, thick mass.

To obtain a high-quality mass, the whites are cooled to a temperature of +2°C before beating (i.e., taken from the refrigerator immediately before beating). Uncooled whites do not whip well, and the baked semi-finished product will be blurry. By the way, it is also best to refrigerate the meringue sugar.

The whites should be separated very carefully so that not a drop of yolk gets into them. This is done like this: over a separate bowl, break the egg with the blunt side of a knife so that the shell cracks. Carefully break the egg and release the white into the bowl. The yolk remains in one of the shells. You also carefully pour the yolk into another shell, the remaining white slides into the bowl, and the clean, undamaged yolk remains in the shell.

Try to break each egg over a separate bowl, pouring the whites into a bowl - no one will find a surprise in the form of a rotten egg plopping down among the rest of the whites pleasant.

It is advisable to grind the sugar into powder or buy ready-made powdered sugar in the store. The size of the grains will not affect the quality and taste, you will just have to beat the protein mass much longer, because this must be done until all the sugar has dissolved. Otherwise, the remaining grains will crunch on your teeth.

First, beat the whites until their volume increases 4-6 times, then slowly add vanilla powder and sugar. All sugar is not added immediately, but several times (in a thin stream or in small spoons).

When whipping egg whites, it is good to use citric acid - in powder, diluted form, or just lemon juice. Citric acid is diluted at the rate of 1 tsp. powder for 2 tsp. water. Citric acid is added to taste, sometimes a few drops are enough, but if you like a sour taste, you can add more, for example, a teaspoon of acid. Just don't use acetic acid!

Dishes and whisks must be not just clean, but perfectly clean, free of grease and any impurities. By the way, when choosing a bowl for whipping, keep in mind that the volume of whipped egg whites will increase four to five times. In addition, the container in which you beat the whites must be dry, otherwise the whites will not beat well.
To degrease, wash dishes in slightly soapy water, then rinse in very hot water. Dry the dishes with a completely clean and dry cloth. To be sure that there are no traces of grease, wipe the dishes and whisk with a slice of lemon.

Egg whites should not be beaten in a metal bowl, otherwise they will darken.

There should be few proteins so that the whisk is not completely immersed in them, otherwise aeration will be impossible and the whites will not beat well. The more egg whites you use, the longer the beating should be at each stage.

It is believed that it is better to beat the whites with a whisk, since the electric mixer heats them up, so there may be a thin foam. But, as a rule, they beat well with a mixer :o)
First, beat the whites at low speed for 2 minutes until yellow foam forms. If there are more than two whites, then you need to beat longer.
Then you need to switch to medium speed and beat for another minute, and finally continue whipping at maximum speed until the desired stage.

You cannot beat the whites for too long, because this way you will achieve the opposite effect: the mass will not be airy and fluffy, but smooth and dense. Unfortunately, you can’t make meringue from it anymore. Five to seven minutes of intensive beating is enough.

It used to be that even a drop of water could ruin all efforts to beat the egg whites. Now this statement is being refuted by experienced cooks, and some even add a few tablespoons of water to the whites so that the dried meringues become especially brittle and dry. It is usually recommended to pour a teaspoon into the whites. very cold water- this way they whip up better.

Sometimes a pinch of salt is added to the whites before beating - it gives strength to the whites.

Catching the moment when the whites are whipped to maximum volume is difficult for a novice cook. However, this point can be determined experimentally. There are three proven methods. In the first case, after stopping the whipping process, lift the whisk slightly so that the whipped whites can form a peak. If the whipped egg white does not fall off and clearly maintains its height, then your work has been crowned with success. But if the whipped whites will be used in the future as part of other ingredients, for example for a cake or soufflé, then the protein peaks should be slightly plastic, slightly lowering when the whisk is lifted.

In the second case, just try to slowly and carefully turn the pan with the squirrels upside down. If the foam does not try to flow down the walls, but holds tightly in the pan, the whites are ready.
In the third case, simply place a knife or fork in the center of the pan with the protein foam (with the teeth or tip pointing to the bottom). In tightly whipped foam, both the knife and fork will stand firmly without the help of your hands.

If the recipe calls for adding a little flour, starch or ground nuts to the whipped whites, then the flour and starch should be sifted to saturate them with air, and the nuts should be fried and ground as finely as possible.

The baking tray should be prepared right away so as not to bother with it later, when the protein mass is already ready and begins to quietly settle out of impatience and boredom. Place tracing paper, parchment paper or special baking paper lightly greased with margarine (butter) on a baking sheet. If you grease it heavily, the bottom of the cakes will tear; if you don’t grease it at all, you will eat meringue with paper.

You can add portions of the protein with a spoon or a pastry syringe. You can transfer the protein mixture into a plastic bag, cut off the tip on one side and carefully but quickly (as air evaporates, the quality becomes low, density increases, and dimensional stability decreases) squeeze the resulting mass in the form of balls onto a baking sheet. Leave a distance between the “blanks”; the meringue will increase in size.

If you decide to bake airy baskets, then draw identical circles on the back of the baking paper (circle the bottom of the glass), fill a pastry syringe or cornet with a smooth round nozzle and fill the circles by squeezing out the dough, moving in a spiral. Then, along the edge of the circles, pipe the dough in the form of a border in one continuous strip or often plant small stars along the edge. After baking and cooling, fill the resulting baskets with cream or jam.

To get even cakes, draw a circle or rectangle of the desired size on the back of the paper with a pencil, then put the dough into a pastry syringe or cornet and pipe the meringue along the drawn contour, moving in a spiral. You can start from the center, or you can start from the edges, it doesn’t matter.

The meringue should be placed in a preheated oven, let it heat up while you spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet covered with tracing paper. I set it to 150°C.
Once you place the meringues in the preheated oven, they should rise immediately. As soon as the meringues “grow”, you must immediately reduce the heat to a minimum (by about 100°C), otherwise they will burn. Leave for about 2 hours. It is recommended to dry the meringues in the oven at low temperature for a long time (one and a half to two hours), then they will dry well and turn out light and with a delicate texture.

By the way, my friend lights the oven only when she has already placed a baking sheet in it and immediately turns it on to a temperature of 100°C - and her meringues turn out excellent. And it bakes for only 40-50 minutes. Apparently, a lot depends on the oven itself.

Cooking time depends on the size of the meringue and the features of the oven. Do not open the oven for at least the first 30 minutes, otherwise the meringue will settle. But it is better, in my opinion, not to open the oven for at least 1 hour, although some housewives believe that, unlike many other baked goods, the oven can and even should be opened while preparing meringue - open it slightly with an inserted pencil. It’s easy to determine readiness: baked meringues easily come off the sheet.
The finished meringue is not white, but slightly creamy in color.

Once cooked (but still hot), the meringues remain soft until they cool, so you can leave them in the turned off oven.

In order to remove the meringue cakes from the paper, place the cake together with the paper on the edge of the table and slowly move it towards you, holding the cake with one hand, while pulling the paper down with the other. By acting carefully enough, you will receive the cake intact and unharmed. Removing small meringues from paper is usually not very difficult.

For a new portion of meringue, take a fresh sheet of tracing paper each time.

While baking meringues, do not allow any shaking - do not slam doors and windows, do not allow children to run and jump around the kitchen.

Ready-made meringues can be decorated with cream, poured with some syrup, or topped with berries, but, in my opinion, they are quite tasty on their own.

To prevent the meringue baskets from melting under the influence of cream, jam or marmalade, make a layer of melted chocolate. To do this, melt the grated chocolate in a water bath in a small amount of milk or cream, stirring constantly and periodically removing from the steam so that the chocolate does not curdle from excessively high temperature, stir until smooth and spread the inside of the baskets with a brush, trying to apply a good layer of chocolate. The same operation can be done with cake layers - this will only add a crunchy chocolate note to your dessert.

In order to decorate meringue cakes, you can prepare, for example, chocolate-nut cream. To do this, roast the nuts and grind them using a blender. Melt the chocolate in a water bath and cool slightly. Meanwhile, whip cream (preferably 35% fat). Add chopped nuts and melted chocolate to the whipped mass. Using a pastry bag, the meringue cakes are decorated with cream on top.

The meringues can be sealed in pairs (with whipped cream or buttercream) and refrigerated.

Store the finished meringue in a dry place. You can store them in plastic bags, otherwise they will pick up moisture from the air and will not be crispy.

That's all. Difficult? Try it and see for yourself.

	1. Carefully separate the whites from the yolks and pour into a deep non-metallic bowl.
	2. Pour sugar or powdered sugar (a glass of sugar for every four to five whites) into a separate cup and set aside.
	3. Start beating the egg whites with a mixer, gradually increasing the speed.
	4. As soon as the protein foam becomes rich white and acquires some density (you can check with a spoon), we begin to add sugar little by little (preferably one dessert spoon at a time).
	5. Beat the foam until all the sugar is completely dissolved.
	6. At this stage, you can add nuts, grated chocolate, condensed milk or anything else to your taste to the protein mass. Any “addition” is carefully mixed into the foam with a spoon.
	7. The readiness of the mixture for baking is checked as follows: scoop the foam into a slightly damp spoon and turn it over. The foam should not leak, fall out or lose its shape.
	8. Place the cakes on a sheet lined with parchment or foil using the same spoon or pastry syringe (the shape and size depend only on your desire).
	9. The meringue is dried in the oven at a minimum temperature (no more than one hundred degrees). Depending on the size of the cakes, the meringue is dried for an hour or two. The finished cakes will be crispy and slightly crumbly.

Based on materials from kedem.ru, cherrylady.ua, domznaniy.ru

As you can see, making meringue at home does not require any super complex skills. It's simple, fast, and most importantly, delicious! Bon appetit and culinary victories!

PS. Meringue is a delicious delicacy, but girls who are on strict diets should always remember that the calorie content of the dessert is very high: 100 g is 310 kcal.

Firstly, for meringue it is better to use fine sugar, since coarse sugar may not completely dissolve. I just throw it into a regular blender and puree for 15 seconds.
Secondly, the bowl for whipping must be dry and in no case greasy.
Thirdly, when separating the yolks from the whites, be careful and careful - the former should not get into the latter.

So, let's start beating 4 whites in a bowl (I had eggs weighing about 63-65 grams).
First, beat for about 2-2.5 minutes. You will see that the whites form a dense foam with fairly small bubbles. Only after this can you start adding sugar. It’s better to do this in 3 batches, beating for about 30 seconds after each batch.

In general, the beating process took me 5 minutes. After the last addition of sugar, I beat for another minute.
You should end up with a very stable mass. I threw away my mixer (I have a stationary one) and went to get my camera. While I was walking, my whipped whites did not change their shape even a millimeter. And as soon as a “pyramid” was formed between the squirrels and the baits, that’s how it stood.

Line a baking tray with special oiled baking paper.
We transfer the dough into a special bag with a nozzle and place the dough on a baking sheet. You can also plant the mounds using a teaspoon.

I make the meringues small, since they take a long time to dry, with a diameter of about three centimeters.
Be sure to leave small gaps between them (about 1.5-2 cm), since they will increase slightly in size during baking.

An oven that is not capable of maintaining a temperature of 90-100 degrees, unfortunately, is not suitable, since this is the temperature required for baking meringues.
You need to bake for about one and a half hours. Color change to very light cream is allowed.
Properly and sufficiently baked meringues should crumble, the middle should be completely baked.

After an hour and a half, take one out and try to break it off or bite it off. If the middle is a little soft, hold them a little longer.
I baked for 1.5 hours, and then left for another 30 minutes in a slightly open oven for control drying.

I really like to seal meringues with cream. I always make Charlotte cream. I talked about it in detail in the recipe. This is the cream that is made for the Fairy Tale cake. I made exactly half the portion.

You can make any buttercream, or you can do without it. You just have to try one meringue, and your hand immediately reaches for a second, a third... You look, there’s nothing left to hold together! Well, that is, of course, if you are a fan of such baked goods. By the way, it is quite sweet, which is not surprising, since there is quite a lot of sugar there. In general, try and enjoy this airy and crispy sweetness!