Italian meringue will come often times in this site, so I'm adding the basic recipe from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume 2". However, since I use it mostly with butter creams or by itself, I normally use half of what the recipe call for. If you'd like more, you can double the ingredients in this recipe and it will turn out well.
Italian meringue requires some level of confort with boiling sugar. A candy thermometer is important in this stage, as is to make sure that you have all your ingredients and equipment ready from the outset.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 egg whites
- Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
EQUIPMENT
- Saucepan with cover
- Electric mixer and bowl, preferably a standing mixer
- A candy thermometer
In this case, the sugar and water are already in the saucepan.
Start by boiling the sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
Place the sugar and water in your saucepan over medium-high heat on the stovetop. Using the handle, swirl the pan carefully until you notice that the sugar starts turning clear and boiling. When it reaches this step, cover and reduce heat to low.
You'll be able to see the bottom of your pan.
Beating the egg whites
- 3 egg whites
- Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the whites using the mixer until it starts to foam. Add a pinch of salt and the cream of tartar. Continue beating until you get stiff peaks and add the vanilla. Turn off the mixer and let aside.
Add the vanilla only at the end.
Finish boiling the syrup and add to the egg whites
Go back to the stove, remove the cover, set heat to medium-high and boil the syrup until it reaches 238˚F on your candy thermometer. It is very important that the syrup does not get much hotter than than.
Just over 280˚F, and ready to use on the whites.
Remove the syrup from the heat. Turn on your mixer at medium speed to start beating the egg whites again. It is best to use a standing mixer, or to have someone help you if you have a handheld mixer. Take the hot syrup and pour a thin thread over the egg whites as they are beating until you are finished.
If you do not have a standing mixer, ask for help. This can be tricky the first time you try it.
Continue beating at medium speed until the mixture cools. It will be about 10 minutes. The resulting meringue will be shiny white and if you cut through with a knife of spatule, the walls should remain erect.
Notice how the cut through the middle keeps its shape. This is how you know it's done.
From this point on, and depending on what you're doing, you can use a piping bag to make decorations to bake for 1 hour at 200˚F over buttered and floured baking sheets, you can add softened butter and flavourings to make a buttercream, or you can use the meringue directly to decorate a cake as I did with this Three Leches Cake some time ago.
Keep baking and enjoy!