So, a quick primer on meringue cookies if you've never heard of them, they are basically cookies made of egg whites, sugar and vanilla. There are at least three methods of preparing meringue. French meringue is made by combining the sugar with egg whites after they have formed soft peaks, and carries a small risk of salmonella (something like 1:20,000 eggs). The Swiss method involves dissolving the sugar in the egg whites over a double boiler and mixing. Italian meringue is made by heating a sugar syrup and adding that to the egg whites. I think the last two are considered cooked. The end result no matter the method, when done right, is a crisp cookie that melts in your mouth, they are so wonderful.
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| French Meringue Cookies |
Up until now, I have only prepared French meringue cookies, and although they are supposed to be the easiest, they are extremely finicky in my experience. I think I have prepared them wrong in every way possible. The meringue can be underbeaten or overbeaten, and the sugar must be added at just the right time. You are basically unfolding the proteins in the egg whites, and stiffening them with the sugar. Mine have wept, beaded, cracked, if they could've cried they would have. Fortunately, you can always eat your mistakes. After getting a stand mixer and still being unable to produce the *perfect* meringues, I decided to try another method.
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| Italian Meringue Cookies |
SO...Italian meringue, where have you been all my life? Besides being practically foolproof, it turns out so smooth and light. To make it even more fantastic I added some of that new powder flavoring for frosting to some, Chocolate Marshmallow Meringue Cookies. Yummy! I was a bit worried, because of how fat-phobic meringue is, but it didn't lose it's stiffness upon adding the powder. They are browner than the French ones, I don't know why considering the two recipes have the same ingredients. Maybe they browned differently due to the sugar being completely dissolved. They are a bit denser than the French, but in the middle the tiny bubbles are perfectly uniform. The photos show some of the differences between the finished products, I did everything for the vanilla French and Italian cookies the same.
Maybe one day I will take the time to explain everything that can go wrong and tips I have learned with the different methods, but there are plenty of tutorials online if that's what you're looking for. It is a learning experience, but a very satisfying one, just buy your eggs at Costco!
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| Italian meringue cookies, vanilla and chocolate marshmallow respectively |
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The recipe I used is here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/italian-meringue-recipe/index.html
So, have some "more-angs" (more meringues) as my toddler says, they're delicious!
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