Luisa, from the blog Cocinando con mi Carmela, brings you today a classic recipe: a delicious French meringue that Luisa presents today in the form of little kisses. It's one of those recipes perfect for breaking in a KitchenAid, I assure you it turns out perfect!
After a well-deserved holiday and total disconnection, this week everything has returned to normal; I have continued with my food photography, studio work, baby shoots, etc... and back to getting my hands in the dough.
For a couple of months now, I have in my possession a beautiful KitchenAid, and I had to make a recipe where it would be the star. What better way to debut it than with some fantastic meringues? The truth is that the KitchenAid is unmatched when it comes to whipping egg whites, so I won't go on any longer — let's get to them!
Below I tell you four basic things when preparing meringues, and I leave you the recipe to prepare what is called meringues or kisses.
How to make a good meringue
What is a meringue made of? It's a foam obtained by whipping egg whites sweetened with sugar. First we form the foam with the egg whites and beat with some whisks or with our KitchenAid. As the foam forms we add the sugar in a sprinkling, little by little. This one in particular is called French meringue, but we find other types like Italian or Swiss meringue (to the latter ground almond is added in the preparation).
The meringue is a baking staple, it is usually prepared and used in sponge cakes, tarts or for the delicious macarons, but they are also super pretty for any kind of decoration.
Today's recipe is called meringues or kisses, and with the help of a piping bag they'll look super cute, since you can shape them as you like depending on the nozzle you use.
Tips for preparing a good meringue
- Use very fresh egg whites at room temperature.
- The bowl for whipping must be super clean and dry, and the egg whites free of any yolk, otherwise they won't whip.
- You can add cream of tartar or lemon juice (in my case they're made without either of these), they help stabilize the meringue.
- Beat at medium speed.
- French meringue, once prepared, should be baked immediately or it will lose volume.
- When baking, the oven should be at a low temperature, and the baking time will be a minimum of 1 hour.
Meringue kisses and KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer
Ingredients
- 80gr egg whites
- 80gr granulated sugar
- 80gr powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Preparation
- With the bowl of our stand mixer well dry and clean, place the egg whites and whip them to stiff peaks at medium speed for about 6-7 minutes. You can also do it without the mixer, of course, by beating constantly with some whisks or an electric whisk.
- Once the meringue is ready, without stopping, add the granulated sugar in a sprinkling (if you want to add vanilla extract, add it at the same time we add the sugar) and, little by little, continue beating for about 5 more minutes. After these minutes in the same bowl add the powdered sugar and this time with the help of a spatula stir until everything is well mixed.
- At this moment preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- To form the mini meringues we use a piping bag, and on a baking sheet with parchment paper we form the meringue kisses, leaving a bit of space between them.
- With this amount I had enough for two sheets, which I put in the oven at the same time and baked for about 70 minutes, lowering the oven temperature to around 90ºC (it will depend on each oven).
- Once this time has passed, turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside the oven for a while longer.
- When taking them out, place them on a rack and let cool.
Comments
Claudia said:
Hola Rosa,
me ha hecho gracia tu comentario porque yo hago exactamente igual: no acostumbro a hacer merengue de por sí, pero siempre lo hago tras hacer crema pastelera en mi caso :) Gracias por tus recomendaciones!!
Saludos!
Claudia said:
Hola María,
Muchas gracias por tu mensaje!! Sí, la verdad es que los cacharros de cocina son un vicio, verdad? :)
en cuanto a los merengues, prueba con ésta receta y a ver qué tal resultan! Ya nos contarás ;)
Saludos!
Rosa M. Caralt said:
Soy una fan de los merengues, y son una solución estupenda para aprovechar las claras, cuando hago crema catalana.
Mi metodo es casi igual que el tuyo, con unas pequeñas variantes, antes de empezar a montar las claras, les pongo un poquito de sal para romper el frescor de las claras y unas gotas de limón. Las cuezo a 120 grados una hora más o menos y las dejo enfriar dentro del horno. Cuando estan hechas no duran mucho en casa. Mi porción de azucar es 50 gr. por clara.
Uno de los postres preferidos por mi familia es la tarta Pavlova, causa un gran efecto y muy fácil de hacer.
Gracias por tus recetas y por tu contacto con todos nosotros.
María Zita said:
Me encantan los merengues, solo he conseguido una vez que me salieran bien. Los voy hacer con vuestra receta. Por cierto me compraría todos vuestros cacharros de cocina, me encantan