Help me! Christmas threw up on my meringues………
I have always disliked anything that
involves egg whites. Simply because there are so many ways that they can fail.
Lately, I have been using them to decorate
my cakes and I have found the road to meringue perfection.
First and foremost, make sure that you wipe
every utensil (including the bowl and mixer) with white vinegar. This will
remove any traces of fat that will cause the egg white to lose volume.
Here is a basic recipe from taste.com.au
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14029/basic+meringues
My only addition is about ¼ teaspoon of
cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is a by-product of wine making that is acidic
and helps to stabilize egg whites. It
also keeps them white and bright.
Slowly, I mean slowly, add the caster sugar
a tablespoon full at a time. Whisk well between additions. Stop mixing once you
put a dab in between your fingers, rub them together and you feel absolutely no
graininess. Your meringue is now ready for piping
Here, I have used some simple tips, a plain
piping nozzle for the kisses, a star nozzle for the roses and a large open star
nozzle for the Christmas trees.
Place your piping bag (with the nozzle in
it) in a tall glass and stripe it with gel food colour, as mentioned before I
love Americolor gels. Then spoon the meringue into the bag. For the trees I
used a combination of two greens.
I do love the effect of adding the green
and red stripe to the little kisses.
A simple splatter of gold sugar or some
glitter can really take your meringues up a festive notch.
You know your meringues are done when you
can easily lift them off the baking paper. Close the oven door, turn it off and
let meringues cool in there until completely cold. Letting them cool too
quickly will lead to cracking.
You may also like to coat the bottoms with
some melted white chocolate.
Store meringues in an airtight container.
They will last about a week like this.
The Sw#@ring Baker.
xxx
Christmas Meringues