In order to make many desserts, you’ll need to learn how to whip egg whites and make french meringue. This is one instance where I highly recommend an electric beater. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but hand mixing becomes very tedious and can take more than an hour if you are whipping up a large batch of egg whites. Not the most pleasant experience.
This is also where a lot of recipes go wrong. Amateur bakers like myself will read “beat to stiff peaks” and either not know what they are or go to far. Worse, we will get a bad recipe that doesn’t understand what egg whites do and tell us to use stiff peaks when we should use soft or medium in order for the mixture to expand while baking. This frequently happens with macarons and angel food cake.
Instead of long text, below you’ll find a pictorial explanation of making a french meringue and the stages that occur. I recommend practicing with an egg white and start out with no sugar, then repeat and add 1T, 2T, 3T. See the difference. Now that you have learned how to make french meringue, what will you make? Perhaps some delicious french macarons?
I had a lot of eggs. 
Maggie wanted to help me dispose of them. 
She managed to roll them further away. 
The pitiful look resulted in my giving in. 
She likes the baby eggs. 
As for the rest, I separated whites from yolks. 
I like to get the eggs a little foamy before adding sugar. If you are just learning how to make meringues, use 2 Tbs of sugar per egg white. 
It will still be very runny. 
This is where I add sugar. If it is a small amount of sugar, I dump it all in. If it is a lot, I’ll stream it in to help it dissolve a little faster. 
Once sugar is added, you’ll start to see the egg stick to the whisk and not pour off completely. 
It will still stream slower and leave a mound in the bowl. This is close to soft peak. 
Once it stops streaming, you’ll have a little tail that will completely collapse if you invert it. I like to use this stage for adding air into cakes, but not structure. 
The whisk will start to leave marks in the bowl as soft peak forms. 
Many people will be fooled thinking this is stiff peaks as sometimes, it will point up straight. Give another stir or two and lift up your whisk. 
This is very soft peak. It’s great for angel food cake and macarons. 
When you flip it over, it curls over. 
Beat egg whites and sugar until tracks form. 
First cake: stiff peaks 
Nothing drops over when turning the whisk. 
Yet you have to be careful. As you can get both stiff peaks and overwhip at the same time. 
You’ll notice this as the sheen starts to disappear, sometimes it breaks down to the point it becomes watery. 
It looks more like shaving cream and will collapse when you touch it. 
And it no longer clings to the whisk.
French Meringue Made Easy
Ingredients
- 1 large (30g) egg white
- 2 tbs (30g) sugar
Instructions
- With a whisk or electric beater, beat egg white on low speed until it becomes foamy.
- Add sugar 1 tsp at a time every 15 seconds and beat on medium speed until you reach desired peak.
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