Meringue is a dessert made with two ingredients, sugar and protein. But modern cooking has long advanced in the direction of developing its recipe, adding fruits, berries, nuts and many other ingredients to it. But this seemingly simple dish has a lot of tricks and secrets.
The main thing in meringues is to beat the sugar and egg white correctly, but it is equally important to bake the meringues at the right temperature. Moreover, this dessert does not tolerate rush-cooks. So, the meringue should be placed only in a preheated oven, and at the end of cooking, it should be left to cool completely. Only in this case you will get a truly perfect and correct meringue with the right degree of dryness.
So, to prepare one serving of meringues (about 6-8 pieces), you will need - proteins from three eggs, about 150 g of sugar, a small pinch of citric acid.
In the classic recipe, sugar can also be replaced with powdered sugar, from which the dessert will not lose in the least in its taste properties.
First, take a deep dish, and do not be fooled by a small amount of ingredients, as in the future they will significantly increase in volume. Place the egg whites in the container, and in the process of separating them from the yolks, be very careful so that even a drop of the latter does not fall into the dishes.
Another secret to making traditional meringues is to pre-cool whole eggs or whites. Therefore, it is ideal that you use the ingredients from the refrigerator.
Do not add all the sugar to the proteins at once, it will need to be added gradually in the process of whipping the future meringue. First turn on the mixer at its lowest setting and beat the whites for 2-3 minutes until the fine bubbles appear, like in a champagne glass. Continue pouring in the sugar and switch to medium speed, whisking for about 4 minutes more. Then add citric acid and the remaining sugar, then work with a mixer for another 3 minutes. As a result, you will get a “dough” that resembles thick natural cream in color.
The readiness of the future meringue at this stage is determined as follows. Try shaping a peak or tail with a mixer. If it doesn't fall off, the meringue is ready.
Preheat the oven to 150 ° C. Until it reaches the desired temperature, take a baking sheet, cover it with parchment paper, on which put small bezeshki, 1 teaspoon of "dough" on each. Do not forget that during the cooking process the dessert will increase in size, so leave a distance between the bezeshki. Reduce the temperature to 140 ° C and place the baking sheet in the oven for about 5-8 minutes, during which the meringue will dry. Then be sure to wait until the dessert has cooled completely and only then serve it to the table.
There is one more cooking method, though a longer one. Set the oven power to 100 ° C and bake the meringue in this way for an hour. That's the whole recipe, it would seem rather simple, but with very important and immutable rules. The recipe can be varied by adding cinnamon, chopped nuts, berries, slices of bananas or other fruits to the "dough" at the last stage. This dessert will add a touch of variety to your tea drinking!
