Chocolate Meringue Cookies Recipe • Food Folks and Fun (2024)

FAQs

What must be avoided when making meringue? ›

Thanks to the modern mixer, meringue making is a lot easier and older eggs aren't necessary. In fact, older eggs create a less stable foam because the liquid drains more easily from the bubbles. As a general rule of thumb, if stability is more important than volume, use fresher eggs.

No yolks here! Surprisingly, fat is the enemy of a good meringue. Think about it this way: Egg yolks are what you use when you want a dense, luscious dessert like mousse or chocolate pudding. Egg whites provide the lightest, airiest texture you can imagine.

Pasteurization heats the egg very quickly, then cools it to kill bacteria. Combine powdered egg whites with water and sugar, then beat. It may take longer to achieve the high, light texture of a good meringue with powdered whites. You can eat meringues made with pasteurized egg whites raw without risk of salmonella.

Cornstarch: Cornstarch is an excellent way to foolproof your meringue. Use it to create added fluff and keep your hard-won volume from shrinking. Cream of Tartar: Often added in when making meringues, acidic cream of tartar provides lift and stabilization.

A couple ideas… never use a plastic bowl, metal or glass only and make sure there is not even a drop of egg yolk. Fat will cause your whites to not reach stiff peaks. Also, adding cream of tartar or a little lemon juice will help make a solid meringue.

Acid. Whether it be vinegar, lemon juice, cream of tartar, or a combination, an acid will greatly improve the structure of meringue. Acid not only helps meringue whip up and aerate more quickly, it also keeps it stable. Without acid, meringue is more likely to collapse either during or after mixing.

Over whip the egg whites and you risk making them too firm and they will risk losing the moisture that they hold. This will affect your meringue's crispness, as well as making it more likely to collapse or weep beads of sugar. As my meringue guru Gary Mehigan advises: “If you over whip the egg whites you cannot fix it.

Will a drop of egg yolk ruin meringue? ›

While getting some egg whites with your yolks shouldn't impact your recipe too severely, getting egg yolks in egg whites can ruin your delicate French macarons and smooth meringues because the fat from the yolk minimizes the egg white's ability to fluff into stiff peaks.

Continue to beat the egg whites until glossy, stiff peaks form.

Slow and steady is the fast and hard rule for any meringue. Start slow when whipping the whites for small and stable bubbles, slowly up the tempo so you don't over beat and then slowly add the sugar. This goes for your oven too. We're not cooking, so much as drying out the meringue.

Lots of macaron video tutorials such as this will tell people to whip in medium speed at the start instead of high speed. This supposedly will create a stronger meringue with tinier bubbles, which would reduce the chances of getting a hollow macaron.

It doesn't have to be perfect, but if there are too many undissolved pieces of sugar, it means it's not fully dissolved into the protein layer of the egg whites. When this happens, your meringues won't come out crisp and they might seep liquid during baking as the sugar melts out of the meringue.

Beat a mixture of thickened cornstarch and water into the egg whites to bind and stabilize the liquid in the meringue (and keep it from seeping out).

Meringue rule 1: Don't let any egg yolk wind up in your bowl. This was the first rule I learned in culinary school. Yolks equal fat, and fat makes it pretty much impossible for the proteins in your egg whites to unravel and start forming bubbles.

Fat interferes with the formation of a good foam—and fat clings to plastic. No matter how carefully you clean a plastic bowl, odds are good that a bit of grease remains behind. It's preferable—and easier! —to use a glass or stainless steel bowl to produce a fluffy meringue.