In appearance, the meringue cake resembles marshmallows, but when cracked, its crispy texture is revealed. This delicacy is prepared from just two products - proteins and sugar. But even with such a short list of ingredients used, there are different technologies (French, Italian and Swiss) with their subtleties and secrets, which will be discussed in this article.

Classic Meringue Cake in the Oven

This recipe shows not only the classic proportions of sugar and proteins, but also reveals the main technological subtleties and secrets that will help to achieve the perfect look and taste of meringues.

For one proportion, you need to take:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 180-220 g of sugar;
  • 3-4 drops of lemon juice.

Cooking technology steps:

  1. Before starting work, thoroughly wash, degrease and dry the beater and whisk of the mixer. Lemon juice may act as a degreaser. With a cotton pad dipped in it, wipe the bowl and blades of the appliance.
  2. Gently separate the whites from the yolks. It is also worth extracting chalase from the protein mass (a white “thread” that holds the yolk in the center of the protein). Then beat the proteins at medium speed until a stable foam or soft peaks.
  3. After this, the whipping speed is gradually increased by adding small portions of sugar (1-2 tablespoons). You should get a dense white mass that will not leak or fall out of the bowl when turned over. At the end of whipping, add a few drops of lemon juice.
  4. Transfer the finished protein mass to a pastry bag and place it on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. So that the meringue does not melt and does not lose shape when dried, it can be dusted with powdered sugar on top.
  5. Meringues are dried at 80-110 degrees for 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the cakes. After this, the meringues are not immediately removed from the oven, but allowed to cool in it, by opening the door.

Sugar in this recipe is not just used as a sweetener. This is the main ingredient responsible for the density of the mass, so its quantity cannot be changed. Ideally, sand should be twice as much in weight as protein.

Cooking with cream

If you pair the airy clouds of meringue with Charlotte cream in pairs, you get a delicious, melting cake in your mouth, the recipe of which is familiar from the time of the USSR.

To prepare meringues with cream according to GOST, you need to take:

  • 140 g (or 4 pcs.) Of protein;
  • 280 g sugar for meringue and 90 g for cream;
  • 3 g of citric acid;
  • 100 g butter;
  • 1 yolk;
  • 65 ml of milk;
  • 4 g vanilla sugar;
  • 15 ml of brandy.

The sequence of actions:

  1. Beat the whites separately in a lush stable foam, then slowly introduce sugar with citric acid. Forty round billets are deposited from the resulting white mass, which are dried in the oven at 100 degrees.
  2. Grind the yolk with sugar and vanilla, then mix with milk and brew until thick over medium heat. Then beat the soft butter with a mixer until splendid, gradually adding the milk custard base and cognac.
  3. Carefully remove the cooled meringue from the parchment and pair it in pairs, smearing the even sides of the workpieces with the resulting cream.

If there is no desire to fiddle with the cream for a long time, you can use boiled condensed milk or melted chocolate to glue the halves of the cake. It will also be very tasty.

Traditional french recipe

The meringue dessert has another name - meringue. Meringues are prepared in different ways: according to French, Italian or Swiss recipes. The simplest is the French meringue. To prepare it, you do not need a thermometer, and the mixer can be replaced with a manual whisk, but in this case you will have to sweat pretty.

To prepare a meringue cake, for a small portion you will need:

  • 2 squirrels;
  • 125 g of sugar.

Cooking:

  1. Beat egg whites at a slow mixer speed, gradually increasing the whisk speed and slowly adding sugar. Beat up until all the crystals have dissolved and achieve, as the French say, “bird beaks”, when a drop of meringue, squeezed between the fingers, when unclenched, forms forms similar to beaks.
  2. After this, it remains only to deposit the meringue on a baking sheet covered with parchment using a pastry bag or simply lay out with a spoon at a distance from each other. Then the cakes are dried at 100 degrees. Https: //www.youtube.com/watch? V = iNMRbMxPfLE

The French meringue (meringue) can be made unusually bright. To do this, with a brush dipped in food coloring, you need to draw vertical stripes inside the bag, then transfer the protein mass into it and plant it. Cakes will turn out with a bright colored surface.

Aerial Italian meringue at home

Italians prefer not to inject sand into whipped squirrels, but thick and hot sugar syrup. The result is a dense, stable mass with a glossy sheen, which domestic housewives call a protein custard. This meringue is most suitable for filling sand baskets or tubes, but you can also dry it to a crispy cake.

The list of products needed for Italian meringue:

  • 3 squirrels;
  • 180 g of sugar;
  • 100 ml of water;
  • 15 ml of lemon juice.

Working process:

  1. Pour sugar into a container with a thick bottom, pour it with water and send to a fire. After boiling, boil the syrup for five to seven minutes.
  2. When the mass is already boiling for 2-3 minutes, start whipping the proteins. By the time the syrup is ready, they should turn white and increase in volume. Pour hot sugar solution in a thin stream into proteins, continuing to beat them.
  3. When all the syrup has combined with the proteins, add lemon juice and continue whisking the meringue until the mass cools completely.The precipitated meringues are dried for two hours at 90 degrees.

Finished Italian meringues are a little soft, but after a few minutes they become dry and crispy, like a French dessert.

Tasty recipe:custard cakes

Swiss way of cooking

Swiss cooking technology is considered universal. It allows you to make not only cream, but also corrugated crunchy meringue cakes that do not blur during drying.

The ratio of sugar to protein will be as follows:

  • 4 squirrels;
  • 240 g of sugar.

How to make meringue cake in a Swiss way:

  1. Put a pot of water on the fire, bring to a boil. In a container of a smaller diameter, combine sugar and proteins, set over boiling water.
  2. Beat the mixer with a mixer at high speed for 5 to 8 minutes. The mass will become white, glossy and dense, while simultaneously increasing in volume.
  3. Remove the prepared meringue from the heat, cool, and then put it on the prepared baking sheet and dry in the oven at 100 degrees for one to two hours.

In the meringue prepared using this technology, the middle is much better baked, although due to the density of the mass it will have to be dried a little longer than the classic French version.

Pavlova cake with meringue

Air meringue, reminiscent of a pack of ballerinas, has become the basis of Pavlov’s delicious portioned dessert, made in the form of nests filled with cream, fresh berries and fruits.

To prepare this cake, you will need:

  • 3 squirrels;
  • 100 g of sugar;
  • 100 g of powdered sugar and an additional 15 g for cream;
  • 10 g of starch;
  • a pinch of salt;
  • 5 ml of lemon juice;
  • 3 g of salt;
  • 120 g of curd cheese;
  • 120 g of heavy cream;
  • Fresh berries and fruits to taste.

Cooking cakes in the following way:

  1. Add a pinch of salt to the proteins and beat them with a mixer. When the first bubbles appear, add sugar in small portions. The result should be a dense snow-white mass.
  2. Pour lemon juice into whipped proteins and add a mixture of powdered sugar and starch. Stir gently at medium mixer speed.
  3. Meringue put on a silicone mat or parchment in the form of nests with a diameter of 7-8 cm at a certain distance from each other. In total, 8 blanks should come out.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and at the time of sending the baking sheet with the blanks into it, lower it to 100 degrees. Dry the nests for about an hour and a half.
  5. For cream, whip cold cream with powdered sugar at high speed into a lush mass, then, lowering the speed, stir in the cold curd cheese.
  6. Fill dried and cooled meringue nests with fruit berries, and top off the cream. Garnish with mint leaves and fruit slices or whole berries. Dessert is served right after cooking.

It should be noted that meringue is a dessert that needs special storage conditions. Snow-white sugar clouds are quite hygroscopic, so they are kept in a dry place, for example, in a tightly closed container. But most often the treat does not need long storage, as it is eaten very quickly.

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