Are you one of those who can't make a meringue correctly? If so, stay with me because this tutorial is especially for you as I will tell you all the tricks to get an extra firm and shiny Swiss meringue. The meringue is made up of egg whites and sugar. It is a light, foamy or crunchy preparation, depending on the final use and the type of cooking that we give it Meringue is an ideal preparation to take advantage of the whites left over from other pastry preparations both for filling and decorating cakes and pastries, as well as baked in the oven in the form of Small bites, it constitutes a delicious sweet which is also tolerated by celiacs To prepare a perfect Swiss meringue, you just need to follow a few simple steps that, although we must comply with them, especially those related to temperatures , are easy to comply with Add 500 grams of sugar and 250 grams of egg white , which would be the whites of 7 eggs We will begin by preparing a casserole with a little water that we will put on the fire to boil . On top we will place a bo l that fits the contour of the casserole with the egg whites and the sugar . Stir with a spatula or rod and heat in a bain-marie, controlling the temperature with a kitchen thermometer until we see that the sugar dissolves, stirring without stopping and without exceeding 60-65 degrees Celsius since higher temperatures would cause the egg whites to coagulate Mix for 4 or 5 minutes, if you make more than 7 egg whites Remember that the time will increase if you do not have a thermometer, now we do the finger test, It consists of taking a sample of egg white and sugar with your fingers and rubbing them in order to feel if there are lumps of sugar in the preparation. The mixture should feel very hot, almost burning and without grains of sugar Once the sugar is dissolved in the egg whites, we would transfer the preparation to the bowl of the mixer with rods , it could also be made with a manual mixer, although the preparation time would be longer. We began to beat at medium speed at high or high, until the whites start to rise or until the meringue cools completely and is firm and shiny. As you can see, I set a timer and this way I show you how many minutes you need to beat until you get this Swiss meringue texture extra firm Here I stop the mixer after 10 minutes of mixing and I tell you that, just as this Swiss meringue is used to make sighs or pavlova , proof that the meringue is completely beaten is that it forms a peak like this, which we also call a peak del Loro to get an extra firm texture I am going to beat the meringue for 5 more minutes and add a teaspoon of vanilla essence Now I have achieved the texture and firmness that I was looking for with this extra firm meringue you can fill cakes, griddle pies, tarts With several layers, you can line the cakes and decorate with pastry bags . This extra-firm Swiss meringue is marked very well with the pastry bag. It holds the decoration very well for several days. It is used to decorate cupcakes and all kinds of individual cupcakes This meringue can be tinted with gel coloring or powder coloring To this meringue you add unsalted butter to the point of ointment and if you continue beating for a few more minutes you get the Swiss butter meringue or Swiss buttercream What are the advantages of Swiss meringue? It is more stable than the French meringue and easier to prepare than the Italian meringue Since the sugar dissolves in the egg whites with the heat , granulated sugar works perfectly for us, we don't need icing sugar , the grains of sugar will never be noticeable in the mouth . I will give some tricks to get this extra firm Swiss meringue Trick number 1 The eggs should always be at room temperature, since this way they retain air much better and we will get them to mount us better Trick number 2 Always use fresh egg whites, by this I mean Don't buy the pasteurized whites that come ready to use with these whites our meringue won't have as much body Although yes, it will whip us up, it won't have all the volume we want Trick number 3 Use a metal or glass bowl this may look like a nonsense, but it will certainly make a difference metal and glass are smooth materials without grooves, so once clean they are perfect Trick number 4 To separate the whites of the yolks, I recommend that you do it in a separate bowl, and one by one so that you understand it better, I break the egg in a glass and put the yolk in a glass And in the other the White I transfer the white to the bowl Where am I going to mount them ? And why do I do that? very easy, because if I break an egg yolk, I won't spoil the rest of the whites The tips I use to make this decoration are the Large tip number 353, the tip number 1E, the Wilton 1m and to form some beautiful and different roses, I show you my trick and the easy way to achieve Paint the pastry bag inside by drawing a line with gel coloring using a long skewer and fill the pastry bag with extra firm meringue Once you have inserted the nozzle to roses In this way you will get some very pretty roses, without using a lot of color Now I will give you the last trick and advice Trick number 5 The amount of sugar should be twice the weight of the whites , therefore it is much better to weigh the whites, to so make sure that we are adding the exact amount of sugar, it is for this reason that in some meringue recipes we will find the amounts in grams , that is, 100 grams of egg white, which would be 4 eggs s approximately per 200 grams of sugar And that's as far as my five tricks for a hard and shiny meringue. Remember that depending on the meringue you want to achieve and for what you need, it will be made in one way or another but these five tricks are generalized, for I recommend that you always keep them in mind when preparing any type of meringue. I hope this tutorial helps you and that you manage to make a hard, shiny, perfect meringue, and of course... EXTRA FIRM If you are looking for decoration with Russian nozzles in meringue, here is the link with the step-by-step tutorial here is a list of creams to fill and decorate here is a list of complete easy recipes and here is a list with meringues sighs and pablova
