French Meringues

 French meringue is the easiest type of meringue to make. We are all about easy at my house. There are also a Swiss meringue and Italian meringue which are worth making for certain types of baking and stabilities. Today however easy and equally delicious is what we are working on.

Fresh egg whites at room temperature are best for a foamy meringue with nice peaks when piping. You cannot allow egg yolk to be in the whites and you must use a squeaky clean metal or glass bowl.

If you want to add a little pizazz to your piped meringue you can flavour with a few drops of extract and colour with a bit of gel food colouring once you have reached your stiff peak stage. You could flavour with a little espresso coffee. The amount would depend on how many egg whites you plan to whip up. 

Another fun way to increase visual appeal is to use a small paint brush, dip it in your gel colouring and paint a strip of  colour up the inside of a piping bag. Go crazy and paint stripes with several colours. 

The formula is 1/4 cup (50g) of sugar for 1 egg white from a large egg. For baking purposes large eggs are standard for recipes. 

Ingredients                                                     

Sugar                                                                  ½ cup

Egg whites                                                           2

Lemon juice or cream of tartar                          ¼ tsp

Salt                                                                      pinch

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 200°F

2.  Leave the egg whites out of the fridge for 1hour before using.

3.     Whip the egg whites for a minute to obtain bubbles.

4.     Add your lemon juice or cream of tartar.

5.     Whip the whites to soft peaks then add your sugar in increments until you develop a shiny stiff peak.

6.     For flavour, add a pinch of salt and a ¼ tsp of vanilla or other flavouring at the end of whipping.

7.     When you reach a stiff peak, your meringue is ready to pipe into shapes such as rose buds, animals, or rounds. The meringue should be shiny. Put meringue into a piping bag and choose a nozzle for piping your meringue cookies.

8.     They bake at 200°F for about an hour or longer depending on the size. After you bake, you can leave them in the oven with the heat turned off for several hours or overnight if you wish. This helps dry them out better and hopefully prevent cracks from heat changes. 

Hope you give them a try. One of the baked treats loaded with protein. I haven't tried it yet but if you gently mix unsalted chopped fruit and nuts into the meringue before baking you would add more protein and fiber to your treat. Almost sound like something to take on a hike.

Don't kid yourself human, I'm the only one you can really do mental telepathy with.