Swiss Meringues

The Art.

    One of the baking projects I wanted to accomplish this winter was to make a beautiful drip cake piled high with macarons, meringues, and candies. The end result was my Candyland Drip Cake and I had a lot of fun putting it together. It was also very intensive, since I wanted to make the meringues and macarons myself. I made a previous post featuring Italian meringues, but this time around I wanted the glossy, delicate shape of Swiss meringues piped with a French tip. The crisp texture and airiness of these cookies accompany tea or coffee perfectly. I suggest making them on a weekend while you are doing your chores, since they require a couple hours in the oven.

The Science.

    The difference between Italian and Swiss meringues is that Italian meringue is beaten at room temperature, whereas Swiss meringue is heated. When egg whites are beaten at high speeds, the albumin protein in the egg whites begins to bind together and aggregate [1]. This traps little air bubbles incorporated by the whisk, making a fluffy meringue. Cream of tartar further aids in the protein aggregation by stabilizing the tangled proteins. In the case of Swiss meringue, the heat provides energy to the aggregation reactions and results in a stiffer meringue with smaller bubbles. 

    I also wanted to share with you an unexpected finding I had regarding food color. The very first batch of meringues I made was dyed with my staple Wilton gel icing colors. I was surprised to find that the blue meringues were cracked and full of large bubbles, while the white ones were fine. Of course, my chemist of a husband took one look at them and said it was because the gel food coloring was cooking up faster than the meringue, causing some parts to shrink rapidly and pull the cookies apart. So, my suggestion to all of you is to use standard liquid food coloring if you want your cookies to come out right!

The Recipe.

Meringue cookies: (Makes 50) 

3 large egg whites

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 cup superfine granulated sugar

liquid food color (optional)

    Preheat oven to 200°F. Bring a medium saucepan with 1 inch of water to a simmer; this will be the bottom part of your double boiler. Combine all ingredients (except the food color) in a large heat-proof bowl. Place the bowl over the steaming saucepan and whip the egg whites on high speed with a hand mixer for 5 minutes. Be sure to have an oven mitt on the hand that is stabilizing the bowl so the steam doesn't burn you. The meringue should make stiff peaks on your beaters when you pull them out of the bowl. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue to beat on high speed until the meringue cools to room temperature, about 2 minutes. This is when you may whisk in the food color if you wish.

     Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, sticking the paper down at the corners with a dab of meringue. Spoon meringue into an piping bag fitted with a 6B tip, and pipe 1-inch stars onto the baking sheets, 1/2 inch apart.  Bake 2 hours, switching the top and bottom racks halfway through. After baking, leave cookies in the oven to cool 1 hour with the door held ajar a couple inches with a spoon handle. Meringues can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container.

1. O Chef, "Beating Egg Whites into Submission." http://www.ochef.com/223.htm