The French, again the French! As soon as it comes to something extraordinarily tasty, light, exquisitely elegant, the French are right there. Where, without them, talented and resourceful cooks and unrivaled confectioners? Even from such a prose product as an egg, they managed to create something sublime-cloudy, air-weightless and terrificly delicious - meringue. I guessed, after all, some French confectioner to whip the egg white with sugar, turning his most delicate cream. And the second French inventor invented this cream to bake and received no less than a masterpiece result - a weightless, divinely tasty "dough" for biscuits, cakes and cakes. How to make meringue, in theory, many know. But how to implement this in practice, not everyone understands. And even that representative of the beautiful half who still cooked meringue (cream for cake or tubes, meringue in a microwave or in the oven), probably faced with some difficulties or surprises. The fact is that both the protein cream and the protein dough are very whimsical. So let's find out how to make meringue at home.
Beze in French
If you have never cooked this magicalcream, it's time to turn to the experience of the French. Their way of making meringues is the simplest. Protein mass, cooked in this way, turns out strong and lush, but quite heavy. Therefore, to cook cakes from it in the oven or in the microwave, you need without special tricks - just oval lozhechechki. Anyway, when baking, they "float". But in its raw form, decorations made from such a meringue keep their shape pretty well. Ingredients:
- Egg whites
- Salt
- Sugar or sugar powder
Preparation: We take the proteins of two eggs, pour into a saucepan or in a bowl, add a pinch of salt to them and start whipping with a mixer or whisk. In general, it can be done even with a fork, only it will be long. So, whisk the proteins into a thick foam. How to determine that the foam is stronger? There are two proven methods. In the first case, just try to slowly and accurately turn the pan with proteins "upside down". If the foam does not try to drain on the walls, but firmly holds in a saucepan - the squirrels are ready. In the second case, simply put a knife or fork (denticles or a point to the bottom) in the center of a pot of protein foam. In a well-creamed foam, both the knife and fork will stand firmly without the help of your hands. So, whipping the proteins to the state of strong foam, we begin to add a little sugar powder or sugar to them, whilst continuing to beat. Powders will take about two hundred grams per protein. However, the exact amount of powder is determined "by eye", since it is necessary to add it to proteins until a certain point - the appearance of so-called "hard peaks". This is when the cream does not fall off from the raised mixer or corolla, and the peaks ("icicles" from the meringue) do not bend under their own weight. Note: To prepare the meringue you only need to take chilled egg whites! This is an indispensable condition for a successful outcome. And one more indispensable condition - the proteins should be carefully separated from the yolks. Even a miserable part of the yolk, hitting the whipping whites, will bring to nothing all your efforts. By the way, when choosing whisking utensils, note that the volume of whipped proteins will increase four times.
Bézé in Italian
The main difference of the Italian waycooking meringue - using sugar syrup instead of sugar. It is believed that the meringue prepared in this manner is obtained a perfect protein cream. Ingredients:
- Egg whites (2 pcs.)
- Sugar syrup (about 300 g)
- Citric acid or lemon juice
Preparation: First, cook the sugar syrup: on two parts of sugar one part of water, a little lemon juice. For meringue of two proteins, you need to take two hundred grams of sugar per hundred grams of water. We beat the proteins into a strong foam and, continuing to whisk, pour a thin stream of hot syrup into them. Whisk the cream until the mass is completely cooled. Note: Beze in Italian perfectly fits as fillings or interlayer for cakes and pastries: it keeps the shape well and does not leak from contact with butter cream and jam.
Beze in Swiss
This meringue is the most-most: the strongest, the densest, the most persistent. It is suitable for figured protein cookies and it is from it make cream flowers, leaves and patterns for cakes. Ingredients:
- Egg whites
- Granulated sugar
- Lemon juice
Preparation: The Swiss way of making meringue, of course, is labor intensive. But, where did ours not disappear? Osilim and him. We arrange for our meringue a water bath: we set dishes with proteins and sugar (one protein - one glass of sugar) on a pot of boiling water. The bottom of the pan should be heated only from steam and do not come into contact with water. Begin to whisk the proteins first at the lowest speed of the mixer, until all the sugar dissolves. And after that we add speed and whisk until ready, getting on the output a white, dense, thick cream.
Beze in the microwave
Learning how to make a cream, let's see how it workscook meringue for meringue - protein cakes. Bake meringue we will be in the microwave, as in the microwave this process proceeds much faster, and many mistresses are familiar with it better than with the oven. Ingredients:
- Egg whites (3 pcs.)
- Sugar-sand (glass)
- Salt
- Lemon juice
Preparation: Cooking meringue in French: First, whisk the proteins into a strong foam, and then gradually add sugar or powdered sugar. We beat the "dough" to hard peaks and add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Let's start baking. You can put the finished meringue in paper baskets for baking, and you can make a grid in the microwave with baking paper, and lay a meringue on it with a spoon. We place the cakes in the oven and turn it on for all the power. In order to cook a meringue in a microwave at full power, it takes only a couple of minutes. However, then still it will be necessary to wait, while merengi completely will cool down directly in a microwave. Cooled cakes are taken out of the oven, sprinkled with chocolate or coconut chips, poured with syrup or greased with oil cream. By the way, the famous "Air cakes" - nothing more than meringue with butter cream, and cookies "Leningrad" - meringue with biscuit. Note: If preparing meringues not in a microwave oven but in the oven, then it will take incomparably longer to bake them - about an hour. However, the technology remains the same and does not differ from the baking of meringue in a microwave oven. Sometimes meringues for meringue are made with starch or flour.
Interesting Facts
- From the French word "meringue" is translated as a "kiss."
- In pre-revolutionary Russia, meringue was called the "Spanish wind".
- In the cookery of the Soviet Union, they sold surprisingly tasty "Air cakes" from dried meringues, and the famous "Kiev" cake based on the meringue cake was a terrible deficit.
- Cake-meringue mentions in his "Notes of the Hunter" Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.
- A classic Australian dessert - a cake of "bezeynyh" cakes - is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.
- Of the protein cakes baked at home, the most popular was and remains the cake "The Secret of an Actress" or "The Surprise of an Actress", based on a meringue and oil cream.
Well, madam, knowing how rightprepare the meringue at home, imbue with the significance of these facts and make for dessert something sweet as a kiss, light as a Spanish wind, fragile as a ballerina, airy like a cloud-meringue (in a word). We advise you to read: