French Meringues
French meringues are a lot of fun to make because you can shape them in so many different ways, add some flavors and colors, etc.
However, I’m honestly not the one who eats them as it is, I like to incorporate them in a dessert to have a good balance of sweet and sour. Lemon meringue pie, Pavlova, Eton mess… You name it! I actually just did a mason jar dessert where matcha meringues were one of the items I used.
French meringues are also a great way to decorate desserts : candy canes or trees for Christmas, hearts for Valentine’s Day, or ghosts and pumpkins for Halloween for example.
A few tricks to make french meringues
Adding Flavors
There are different ways to add flavors in french meringues.
With liquid extracts (vanilla, coffee, orange blossom syrup, etc), right after adding the icing sugar, incorporate a few drops gently with a spatula.
With unsweetened cocoa powder, again, after adding the icing sugar.
Before baking : dust the meringues with fruit / cocoa powders, or sprinkle with sliced almonds, cocoa nibs, shredded coconut, etc.
Coloring
Pour a few drops of food coloring in the meringue when adding the last third of granulated sugar. You can also color some coconut shreds and sprinkle them on top of the meringues after piping.
Piping
I think french meringue is one of the best way to practice piping because of its texture. You can play around with different tips, make round shapes, straight lines, stars, S-shapes…
Don’t forget to stick the parchment paper to the baking sheet with a small drop of meringue in the corners. You don’t want the parchment paper to move when you’re piping, plus, if you have an oven with a strong fan, it will prevent the meringues from flying away while baking, as they are pretty light.
Drying
Meringues need to be baked at a very low temperature, you want them to dry and stay white. I would rather recommend baking them at a lower temperature for a longer time than the other way around.
Storing
When it comes to storage, you can use any type of hermetic container, my favorite being glass jars because it makes a nice home decor!
If you want to decorate a dessert with french meringues, put them last minute to keep their crunch.
French meringues
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer with a whisk
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites 90 g
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar 90 g
- ¾ cup icing sugar 90 g – sifted
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- In a stand-up mixer, beat the egg whites with the whisk on high speed until it gets foamy.
- Add about one third of the granulated sugar and keep mixing on high speed for one more minute.
- Add the second third of the sugar. Mix for about 5 more minutes.
- Add the rest of the sugar and mix for about 30 seconds, to stiffen the meringue.
- Fold the sifted icing sugar in two times, using a rubber spatula.The meringue is going to get a bit softer, but still stiff enough to be easily piped.
- Preheat the oven up to 180°F – 80°C.
- Fill out a piping bag with the tip of your choice and pipe the meringues on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper – don’t forget to stick it to the sheet with small drops of meringue in the corners so it doesn’t move while piping.
- Dust with cocoa powder, and bake for at least 2 hours.Check if the meringues are completely dried by simply removing them from the parchment, if they don’t stick to the paper and are dry to the touch, you’re good.
- What I usually do is that I turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven overnight. I put them in a container or a jar the next day.
- You can keep the meringues for a couple of weeks to a month on your kitchen counter.
Notes
There are different ways to add flavors in a meringue.
You can use some liquid extracts (vanilla, coffee, orange blossom syrup…), right after you add the icing sugar, incorporate a few drops with a spatula.
Sift some unsweetened cocoa powder, and again, after adding the icing sugar, incorporate it gently with a spatula.
Dust the meringues with fruit / cocoa powders, or sprinkle with sliced almonds, cocoa nibs, shredded coconut…
Pour a few drops of food coloring in the meringue when you add the last third of granulated sugar. You can also color some shredded coconut and sprinkle it on top of the meringue after piping for instance.
I think french meringue is one of the best way to practice piping because of its texture. You can play around with different tips, do round shapes, straight lines, stars, S-shapes…
Don’t forget to stick the parchment paper to the baking sheet with a small drop of meringue in the corners. You don’t want the parchment paper to move when you’re piping, plus, if you have an oven with a strong fan, it will prevent the meringues from flying away while baking as they are pretty light.
Meringues need to be baked at a very low temperature, you want them to dry and stay white. I would rather recommend baking them at a lower temperature for a longer time than the other way around.
When it comes to storage, you can use any type of hermetic container, my favorite being glass jars because it makes a nice home decor!
If you want to decorate a dessert with french meringues, put them last minute to keep their crunch.
Calories are per one serving (total calories for the recipe : 755).