Meringue is a light and fluffy egg-based frosting commonly used in pastries and desserts. It requires specific proportions of egg whites and caster sugar, and should be baked for at least 15 minutes to eliminate salmonella. Meringue can be applied using a flat knife or piping bag, and can also be made into confections. Once cooked, meringues can be frozen but will have a different texture than fresh meringue.
Meringue is an egg-based frosting that often appears atop cakes and custards. The main feature that separates meringue from other frostings is its ability to hold fluffy peaks. You beat the meringue ingredients until they form stiff but airy peaks, so the meringue glaze is light and slowly dissolves as you eat it.
Meringues are common in the pastry world. The classic baked Alaskan dessert is a popular pastry creation with a meringue topping. Other recipes that call for meringue range from simple lemon fridge cakes to gourmet desserts and specialty candies.
To create a meringue frosting, egg whites and sugar are combined in specific proportions. Caster sugar is the main sugar used for meringue. You can beat the meringue by hand, but you’ll often get better results with an electric mixer. To form the meringue properly, you only need to add small amounts of sugar at a time. Adding more than a small amount of sugar at a time produces a meringue with a grainy texture.
Meringue is a delicate frosting that is much more difficult to get right than regular cake frosting. Novice bakers generally have enough skills to incorporate meringue frosting ingredients well enough to achieve satisfying results. This isn’t guaranteed, however, and experienced bakers sometimes have trouble making this glaze.
You can swirl the meringue onto a cake or pastry using a flat knife or icing spreader. A more sophisticated meringue application can be created by forcing the meringue frosting through a piping bag. The piping bag allows you to create individual peaks of meringue frosting in a pattern of the baker’s choice.
Eating raw meringue frosting isn’t considered safe, because raw eggs are often a source of salmonella. Cooking eggs eliminates this bacteria. You need to bake any pastry that has a meringue glaze for at least 15 minutes. The correct temperature setting for baking meringue frosting is 350° Fahrenheit (176.6° Celsius).
Meringues also have applications as confections in some cuisines. These types of meringues can be made as party candy. This is a dry meringue, which is typically safe to eat when made using hot sugar syrup, because the hot syrup cooks the eggs during preparation.
Once cooked, you can freeze the meringues for later use. The baker spreads the meringue on a baking sheet, usually lined with parchment paper. Once the meringue sets, you pack individual dollops of meringue into a freezer bag. While a once-frozen meringue is edible, it doesn’t have the same texture as a whipped meringue that has never been frozen.
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