How to read when a meringue or meringue roulade is ready

To make meringue or a popular meringue roll with a berry filling, you need to know the rules for perfectly whipping whites and have culinary skills. It is important to observe the time and temperature of baking, otherwise the treats can remain soggy or become overdried.

Meringue and meringue: what's the difference?

The Germans, the Poles, and the English still claim primacy in the creation of the meringue recipe. It's unknown who first created the culinary masterpiece, but its popularity hasn't diminished since the beginning of the 17th century.

Meringue is a dense whipped in a dense foam of protein and sugar mass, which is used to glaze and decorate cakes and cover the cakes.

Meringue is a ready-made confectionery product, prepared according to the same recipe as the meringue, brought to a solid state in the oven.

There are several types of meringue:

Basic French.
To make it, a pinch of salt is introduced into the whites and gradually adding powdered sugar is whipped into a stiff foam. This type of meringue is suitable for decoration of Christmas cakes.

Swiss
Unlike French meringues, the Swiss recipe for whipping whites with sugar puts the container with the cream in a water bath and heats it to 60°C. Thanks to pasteurization the mass becomes dense, stable, increases in volume several times. Swiss meringue is used to create three-dimensional fantasy figures, inscriptions for cakes and pastries.

Italian or protein and custard
Not sugar is introduced into the whipped whites, but hot sugar syrup in a thin trickle. The dense mass is smeared on the cakes, stuffed eclairs, waffle tubes, caps are deposited on cupcakes.

It's easy to combine white cream with butter, keeping its shape.

How to know when a meringue is ready

When meringue drying time is up, open the oven door, remove the dessert, tap the surface with your finger. If there are no cracks, then the crust has hardened.

To check the consistency inside the cake, break it in half. It should crisp when you break it and be completely dry.

How to tell if a meringue roll is ready

The method of cooking meringue is different from cooking meringue. If meringue in the oven is dried at not more than 100 degrees, meringue is baked at 130-150 degrees.

To get a soft texture on the inside and a crispy crust on the outside, corn starch is added to the recipe in addition to the sugar and protein. Bake the meringue for no longer than 30-40 minutes, otherwise it will not roll.

The ideal structure of a meringue sheet for a roll is dense on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. If you tap the meringue with your finger, you will hear a characteristic sound. When pressing the product should not crumble.

The secrets of a perfect meringue

Rules for making a stable meringue, meringue:

Clean, dry cooking utensils
Before whipping the egg whites, thoroughly wash and degrease the bowl and mixer whisk. Rinse with boiling water and lemon juice. Allow to dry. A few drops of moisture can destroy the structure of proteins.

Quality ingredients
Separate whites from yolks in chilled eggs. If the product is warm, there is an increased chance of the yolk getting into the whites, which is unacceptable. Warm egg whites (22-25°C) of a week-old egg whites beat better and are more stable in baking.

To dissolve the sugar completely, choose dry, fine granulated sugar without clumps or powdered sugar.

Speed of the mixer
First, whip the whites with the sugar at low speed of the kitchen appliance. When bubbly foam forms, increase the speed, but not to the maximum. To prevent the meringues from dropping after baking, add the sugar a teaspoon at regular intervals.

With the advent of electric mixers, the need for peak stabilizers (salt, citric acid) was eliminated.

Tip! To prevent dessert from settling after removing from the oven, do not open the door during drying.

Q&A

Beginning cooks have questions related to the nuances of cooking, determining if the meringue, meringue is ready.

How long does it take to dry the meringues?

Dry the meringues for 2 hours at 70-80°C, or 1.5 hours at t - 100 degrees. Once the products have hardened, turn on convection to prevent cracking.

You can use the express method. Bake the product for a few minutes at 200 ° C, half an hour at 100 ° C.

How ready should the meringue be?

The readiness of the meringue depends on the condition of the peaks. If they are soft, with a whisk lifted up, the protein mass gradually slides down. If the peaks are medium, the cream drips down only around the edges. Firm peaks are considered ideal for baking. The whipped protein foam holds its shape well throughout.

Can I bake meringues on a silicone baking mat?

To dry meringues, line a baking tray with a Teflon, silicone baking mat or silicone-coated baking paper. They are the easiest way to remove the meringues.

Why are meringues like gum on the inside?

The meringue turns out rubbery if the sugar is not completely dissolved when you whip it, the process continues in the oven. This will result in a buildup of sugar syrup that concentrates closer to the center.

To prevent this from happening, whip whites heated to 22-25 degrees, not straight out of the fridge.

Why does meringue release syrup?

The reason for this phenomenon is a disturbance in the structure of the protein, which occurs due to excessive beating with the mixer. If the cream turned out lumpy consistency without shine, then the product is spoiled. The meringue in the oven will release syrup on the surface.

Why doesn't the meringue dry?

A meringue sent to the preheated oven has a crust that hardens quickly, preventing the protein underneath from drying out. To ensure that the dessert dries evenly, place the tray in a cold oven.

Use a kitchen thermometer to determine the drying temperature. Another possible reason is that there wasn't enough time to bring the treat to perfection.

If you learn all the nuances of making meringue, you can create a variety of pastry masterpieces on its basis with the addition of fruit, chocolate, cream, cheese, nuts.