The name of this treat is literally translated as “kiss”. Its composition is simple, like all ingenious, but not every housewife can prepare perfect airy, meringue melt in the mouth. Below are all the secrets of meringues at home, various variations of the dessert with berries, nuts and chocolate, cooked in the oven and microwave.

Classic meringues at home

In meringue recipes you can find flour, starch, vanillin, citric acid and salt, and the classic version involves the use of a minimum of ingredients, in this ratio:

  • 2 squirrels;
  • 200 g of powdered sugar.

Recipe step by step:

  1. In a clean and fat-free dish, start whipping the proteins at medium speed of the mixer. When they turn into light foam, gradually add powdered sugar so that the mass becomes dense, stable and shiny.
  2. Meringues are not baked, but dried, therefore it is preferable to cook them not on a baking sheet, but on a grid covered with parchment. To better finished products lag behind baking paper, it should be greased with oil.
  3. Snow-white clouds deposited on parchment are sent to dry in a preheated oven. If there is a convection mode, then it should be used. During drying, the door must not be opened, and the dessert should be cooled without sudden changes in temperature - with the door ajar.

Drying time and temperature will depend on what texture you want to get the finished product. For crispy cookies - 110 degrees and about 1.5 hours, for soft and delicate products - 150 degrees and about 50-60 minutes.

How to steam

A French dessert cooked in a steam bath turns out to be much more magnificent and more stable.

To prepare one of its options with the addition of nuts, you must prepare:

  • 4 squirrels;
  • 180 g of white crystalline sugar;
  • 2-3 drops of vanilla essence;
  • 50 g crushed roasted nuts.

Cooking:

  1. Set the bowl with proteins and sugar on a steam bath and begin to whisk these ingredients at the minimum speed of the electric mixer. After about 10 minutes, the mass will reach the desired consistency.
  2. Remove the proteins with sugar from the stove and place in a large container with cold water, add vanilla essence, whisk for some time until the meringue cools down.
  3. Next, add chopped nuts and mix gently with a spatula. Spoon small cakes onto the prepared pan and dry at 130 degrees. When preparing dessert in a gas oven, you should make sure that the temperature in it does not rise above 110 ° C.

With strawberry

An airy dessert based on proteins and sugar turned into a meringue cake, named after the great ballerina Anna Pavlova.

To cook it, you will need:

  • 4 squirrels;
  • 130 g of sugar;
  • 15 g of starch;
  • 210 g of powdered sugar (including 100 g in cream);
  • 7 ml of lemon juice;
  • 400 g of weighed sour cream;
  • 150 g of strawberries.

Cooking Technology:

  1. Mix and sift 110 g of powdered sugar with starch. Beat the whites with a mixer, adding sugar to a teaspoon. Enter each subsequent portion after the crystals of the previous completely dissolved.
  2. Following sugar, add a mixture of powder and starch into the proteins. The result should be a lush and stable mass that will not fall out when the bowl is turned over.
  3. Put “nests” or “baskets” on parchment using a pastry bag. If there is no bag, simply put the meringues with a spoon and make a depression in the center with it.
  4. Bake an air base for approximately one hour at 110-150 degrees. Cool also leave in the oven with the door ajar.
  5. For cream, beat the sour cream weighted by adding powdered sugar. In the center of the meringue baskets, place the cream or spoon with a cream and garnish with chopped strawberries.

French Meringue with Cranberries

The sweetness of the French meringue is perfectly balanced by cranberry sourness.

To make such an ideal dessert, you will need:

  • 4 protein eggs;
  • 200 g of sugar;
  • 2-3 g of vanillin;
  • 5 ml of lemon juice;
  • cranberry berries to taste.

The sequence of actions:

  1. Beat the whiskers with a mixer to a soft foam of medium stability, then add sugar and vanilla in small portions, continuing to whip, until creamy. At the very end, pour in lemon juice. This ingredient will hide the egg flavor in the finished dessert.
  2. Thoroughly rinse cranberry berries under running water and dry using paper towels. Before adding to the dessert on the berries should not be a drop of moisture.
  3. Cover the baking sheet with parchment, which grease with butter. Use a teaspoon to place round small flat cakes (about 3 cm in diameter) from whipped proteins. In each cake a little drown a few berries of cranberries.
  4. Bake meringues for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees on an average oven level. Then slightly open the door and leave the dessert to cool completely. Without a sharp temperature drop, the cakes will not fall and remain as high.

In the microwave

Meringues cooked in a microwave oven according to this recipe are no different from classic meringues, but the time for the cooking process will take half as much.

The composition of the dessert includes:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 200 g of granulated sugar or powder;
  • 3 g of citric acid;
  • 3 g of salt;
  • 5 g of soft butter.

How to make meringue in the microwave:

  1. Add a couple of tablespoons of sugar mixed with sodium chloride to the proteins and begin to beat this mixture with an electric mixer at medium speed.
  2. When the sugar and salt disperse, add another serving of sugar mixed with citric acid. After waiting for its complete dissolution, in the same small portions introduce the remaining sugar.
  3. Put the finished lush mass of sugar and proteins onto a microwave-covered parchment grid. Preheat the oven to 130 degrees, then put the meringue grid in it and cook in convection mode for 30 minutes at the same temperature to which the microwave was previously preheated.

Chocolate Meringue at Home

This version of chocolate meringue is not only devoid of the inherent meringue of meringue, but it also turns out beautiful marble colors.

The list of ingredients that will be needed during the cooking process will be as follows:

  • 2 squirrels;
  • 100 g of sugar;
  • 50 g of dark chocolate.

We prepare as follows:

  1. Finely chop the chocolate with a knife and put it in a tightly closed plastic bag. Next, the chocolate in the bag must be brought to a liquid state. To do this, dip in a few seconds (no more than 20) immerse the bag in hot water and knead the contents of the bag with your hands. If necessary, repeat bathing in boiling water.
  2. Beat the whisk with a mixer until foamy, without reducing the speed of the mixer to introduce sugar. A smooth glossy mass should come out. At a chocolate bag, cut off a corner, and evenly distribute chocolate on top of whipped proteins with chaotic strips.
  3. With a few movements from top to bottom, mix the whites and chocolate with a silicone spatula, preserving the beautiful marble pattern. Put the meringues on a baking sheet covered with parchment and bake for an hour at 130 degrees.

Cooking a Wet Dessert

Wet meringue (meringue) is used by confectioners in two of its forms - as a cream for decorating cakes, pastries, cupcakes and Easter cakes; in the form of crispy cookies dried in the oven.

The recipe for such a universal dessert includes:

  • 2 squirrels;
  • 100 g of sugar;
  • 5 g of vanillin;
  • 3.5 g of citric acid.

Algorithm of actions:

  1. Beat the whites until a foam of medium density, then place them in a water bath and continue to beat, gradually adding sugar. At the very end, add vanillin and citric acid.
  2. After 7-10 minutes of beating the meringue in the bath, it will reach the desired density. After this, it should be removed and whisked for another five minutes, so that the mass has cooled sufficiently.
  3. Ready “wet” dessert can be used to decorate confectionery or dried in the oven and serve as an independent dessert.

Meringue on a stick

A bamboo stick and a couple of drops of food coloring can turn ordinary white meringue into a bright cake, which will appeal to both large and small sweets in taste and appearance.

Proportions of ingredients for a treat on a stick:

  • 3 squirrels;
  • 165 g of sugar;
  • 8 g of vanilla sugar;
  • a few drops of food coloring.

Working process:

  1. Squirrels with sugar, including vanilla, send in a saucepan to a steam bath. Mix the contents of the container with a hand whisk vigorously so that the proteins do not curdle and the sugar is completely dissolved. At this stage, do not beat the mixture.
  2. As soon as when grinding the mixture between the fingers the grains cease to be probed, remove the proteins from the bath and beat with a mixer until they cool completely. During this time, the mass will increase in volume, thicken, become snow-white and glossy.
  3. If desired, color part of the meringues or the entire mass, adding dyes at the very end. Using the closed star nozzle, place the meringues on a baking sheet lined with parchment, insert skewers or bamboo sticks.
  4. Dry meringue on a stick should be at 90-100 degrees for one to one and a half hours. So that the dessert is not softened and not fallen, it must cool down in the oven with the door ajar. Carefully remove cooled meringues from the paper.

The subtleties of making perfect meringues

Despite the simplicity of the dessert, there are several secrets on how to cook meringues in the oven:

  1. It is important that when separating the proteins from the yolks, not a drop of the latter falls into the meringue, otherwise the meringue simply does not beat.
  2. Beating utensils must be dry and clean, they can also be degreased by wiping with a cotton pad soaked in lemon juice. Do not whip the proteins in an aluminum container, as they can darken.
  3. If the cakes contain starch and / or flour, then these ingredients must be sifted, this procedure will give the dessert splendor.
  4. Sugar is added to proteins in small doses, only after the previous portion has been dissolved.
  5. It is very convenient to cook meringues in the evening, leaving them in the open oven for the night, then in the morning you can enjoy an airy treat with a cup of tea or coffee.

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