hey there it's Bettie from BakerBettie.com and welcome back to another video
now if you aren't familiar with me I am a professional baking instructor and my
goal is always to help you be a better Baker through teaching classic baking
techniques and approachable baking science now today is the start of our
new series all about meringue now meringue is one of those pastry
components that is used for all kinds of things everything from baked into a
little crispy cookie to topping a pie it's also used to fold into light cakes
like an angel food cake to help leaven them and it can be used to make things
like french macarons so today I want to start by reviewing the three different
types of meringues used in baking and their best uses now later on in the
series we're going to use these different types of meringues to make a
few different beautiful desserts and you can find all of the written tutorials
for these three different types linked down in the description box
now meringue in its most basic form is whipped egg whites with sugar when you
start to whip egg whites the proteins start to unravel and trap air in them
and then when you add sugar into this mixture it stabilizes it so there are
three different types of meringue used in baking there is the French meringue
there is Italian meringue and Swiss meringue now all of these techniques are
a little bit different in their makeup which results in a different texture for
the meringue however whichever style of meringue you
are making there are a few different things that you want to keep in mind and
the first thing is that fat actually prohibits egg whites from retaining air
so you want to be really careful that your mixing bowl is free from any oils
and when you go to separate your egg whites you want to take extra care that
you do not get any egg yolk into your egg whites the second thing to keep in
mind is that egg whites do not whip up to their full potential when they are
cold so you really want to start with room-temperature egg whites anytime you
are making a meringue and the last thing to keep in mind is
morang it should always be made right before you need it it's not something
that is very stable and can be held for several days you really want to make it
right before you are going to use it okay so let's go ahead and dive in to
the three different types of meringues and how to make them we're going to
start out with French meringue which is the easiest meringue to make but it is
also the least stable meringue to make your French meringue you are going to
put your room-temperature egg whites in your mixing bowl along with a little bit
of cream of tartar and salt you're gonna start mixing this on about
a medium speed until you start seeing the mixture look really frothy and
starting to retain a little bit of air once the mixture is retaining some air
you can start very slowly adding your sugar you want to add the sugar about
one tablespoon at a time and wait about 15 seconds before you add the next
spoonful this process really should not be rushed and this is what will help
your meringue not have a gritty texture once it is whipped once all of the sugar
is added you can go ahead and increase your speed up to high and keep mixing
that until you reach stiff peaks this is going to take at least five minutes but
you can stop your mixer occasionally and check for the progress now if you did
add that sugar mixture in really slowly it actually is really difficult to over
mix your French meringue now because this meringue is the least stable of the
three it is often used to help leaven cakes like folded into an angel food
cake or it works really well baked into little meringue cookies or kisses now
many people do like to use a French meringue to top their pies however I do
not prefer it because it can start weeping really quickly and I think a
more stable meringue is much better for a pie topping it's also often used to
make French macarons however I also prefer the more stable Italian meringue
to make my macarons now the second style of meringue that we are going to talk
about is our Swiss meringue now this meringue is slightly more
stable than the French meringue and it starts
by combining your egg whites and your sugar in a bowl over a pot of simmering
water now this is also known as a double boiler you want to make sure that your
water is not rapidly boiling just gently simmering and you also want to make sure
that that water is not touching your mixing bowl use a silicone spatula to
stir the mixture as you heat it up to a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit you
do want to stir continuously as you're heating this mixture up and a lot of
recipes do call for you to whisk this mixture however I find that it's really
easy to over whisk the mixture as you're heating it and for the sugar to start
sticking to the sides of your bowl which will make your meringue really grainy
now once it reaches a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit you're going to pour
that into your mixing bowl and start whipping it on high speed until it cools
down completely and you reach stiff peaks this is going to take somewhere
between ten to fifteen minutes and you don't want to rush it you want to make
sure that mixture cools all the way down now you can see the texture of this
meringue is a little more glossy than the French meringue but it's also more
dense in texture and probably the most common use for Swiss meringue is for a
type of butter cream called Swiss meringue buttercream now the last style
of meringue we are going to cover is Italian meringue and this is the most
stable of the three types of meringue and it's also my favorite type of
meringue to make now Italian meringue can seem a little bit daunting to make
because you absolutely do need to use a candy thermometer you need to be really
accurate with your temperatures for this but once you get the hang of it it is
very simple so you're going to start with your sugar and your water in a
saucepan over medium heat and we're going to heat this mixture until it
reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit now while your sugar mixture is heating go ahead
and put your egg whites in your mixing bowl and when the sugar mixture reaches
220 degrees Fahrenheit turn the mixer on to high speed when your sugar mixture
reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit go ahead and take it off the heat and at this
point your egg whites should be really frothy and starting to hold air very
slowly start streaming the sugar mixture down the side of the bowl you don't want
to rush this go very very slowly and make sure the sugar mixture is streaming
down the side of the bowl and not directly into the center of the bowl
once all of the sugar syrup is added continue whisking on high speed until it
cools down completely and you are holding stiff peaks you can go ahead and
flavor your meringue with anything you like I often just add some vanilla bean
paste because I really like seeing all of those flecks mixed throughout now you
can see that the Italian meringue isn't quite as dense as the Swiss meringue and
it really is much more stable than the other two which means you have a little
bit more of a window of time in which you need to use it now I really like to
use Italian meringue as the topping for my pie because it is more stable and
it's not going to weep the way French meringue does and it's also really nice
to use to make macarons and that's it those are the three styles
of meringue used for baking there's French meringue Swiss meringue
and Italian meringue now later on in the series we will be using the different
types of meringue to make a few different desserts so stay tuned for
those videos and as always I'm really happy to answer any of your questions
you can leave those down in the comments section make sure you like this video
and if you aren't already subscribed make sure you do so so you don't miss
another video and I'll see you all next time with another baking tutorial