There are many people in the world who love sweets and goodies. One of the most delicious treats is meringue. Many people prepare this product at home. An oven is required for cooking. However, in a convection oven, meringue does not always work.
How to make meringues?
The composition of the meringue is surprisingly very simple. Its main ingredients are only proteins and sugar. Sometimes nut flour and starch are added to the meringue. Such a small amount of dessert ingredients does not mean that it will be easy and simple to prepare the product. For an inexperienced culinary specialist, tender meringue can bring a lot of unpleasant surprises. Therefore, for the correct preparation of meringues, a person must have theoretical knowledge.
Cooking a dessert like meringue can be done in three ways.
The first one is called French. This method is the easiest to implement. It can be used to try to master this dish, as well as to make meringues of simple shapes that do not have subtle patterns. The mass of proteins turns out to be fluffy, strong, but the bubbles in the product are clearly visible. French meringue is prepared in this way: chilled whites are whipped to a strong foam with a pinch of salt, then sugar or powdered sugar is added little by little, after which all this mass is whipped to a "hard peak".
The second way to make meringues is Italian. It differs from the French one in that, instead of sugar, steeply boiled sugar syrup is added to the dessert. Hot syrup is poured into the product in a thin stream. The whites are beaten until the mass has cooled.
The third, most laborious, method of making meringues is Swiss. To implement it, you need to build a steam bath. As a result of this method, the meringue will turn out to be the most dense, strong and persistent. The steamed mass can be used to create cookies of various shapes and patterns. Their main advantage is that they dry quickly. Cooking takes place as follows: a container with proteins and sugar is placed over a pot of boiling water. In this case, the bottom of the dishes should not come into contact with boiling water. The whites are whipped very slowly until the sugar dissolves. The whipping speed is then increased. The result should be a thick, dense mass.
Why is it impossible to cook meringues in a convection oven?
Some people make a dessert like meringue in the oven. As a result, the product does not turn out the way a person wants to see it. It's all about convection mode. Convection affects the fact that the meringue does not dry out. To be more precise, the effect on the dessert is exerted by moving streams of hot air. During cooking, the meringue should not be stirred, and the oven should not be opened. It is necessary to avoid any movement of air, and even more so not to create it artificially. If possible, it is best to turn off convection mode.
