Making a standard meringue.

[jeff]

Things needed,

Mixer, hand or stand. I use a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.ht...25">KitchenAid stand mixer</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=h...l=ur2&amp;o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
3 bowls for separating eggs
4 eggs
2 TBS sugar
pinch of cream of tartar



The #1 thing you have to do when making a meringue is to make sure your bowl and whisk are super clean.
If there is the slightest bit of fat (oil, butter, egg yolks...) your Meringue will not rise, or if it does rise it will not make it to a full rise and will not stay very stable.

With that being said, make sure your bowl and whisk are clean! If ever in doubt, wipe the bowl and whisk down with white vinegar, then clean the disk with soap and water. This should remove any fat that might have been left behind from the last use.

Unlike creams, meringues work better when all your items, bowl, whisk, and egg whites, are at room temperature, however since eggs are much easier to separate while cold, you should separate your egg whites and yolks in advance.

Setup three bowls, then take 4 eggs out of the refrigerator, crack the first egg open. making sure to crack it on a flat surface rather then the edge of a bowl (that only pushes egg shell up into the egg) hold the cracked egg over bowl #1, split the egg into two halves and pass the yolk from half shell to half shell, once you're removed all of the egg white, place the yolk into bowl #2. dump the egg whites from bowl #1 into bowl #3 (the safe zone)
Grab another egg and start the process over till you're done with all 4. If you happen to get any yolk into bowl #1 while separating the yolks and whites, STOP. either set bowl #1 aside to cook later on, or dump out the egg, replace or wash the bowl and start over again. any traces of yolk in your whites can cause the meringue to fail.

Once you have all 4 eggs separated, leave them out so they can warm up to room temperature. I sometimes take a bowl of warm water and place the bowl holding the egg whites inside the bowl of warm water. this speeds up the process.

Once you're ready to whip. Place your egg whites into a mixing bowl. add a pinch of cream of tartar (this helps control the proteins in the whites making for a even more fail safe meringue). Put the wire whisk attachment in your hand then hand whisk the egg whites until they're mixed up and show some small bubbles, at this point you can put the whisk attachment on your mixer and crank it up to high speed. when the egg whites start to come together and retain air. Start to slowly add 2 TBS of sugar. Once all the sugar is added, check your meringue to see how stiff it is.

remove the whisk attachment and dip it straight down into the meringue then pull straight up and tilt the whisk upside down.

Soft Peaks. The meringue should barely hold it's shape.
Medium peaks. The meringue should retain most of it's shape, tipping over slightly.
Stiff Peaks. The meringue should hold it's shape. just keep in mind, there's a fine line between still peaks and over beaten meringue!

If a meringue is over beaten it will lose its shine and start to look grainy, it will also give up some fluid. if way over beaten it will look like slop. keep in mind, if you over beat eggs, there's nothing you can do to them other then throw them away. they're done for! dont even try to cook with them. there's no hope.

Once you're done making your meringue, place a lid on it and keep it in a cool place. Once you're ready to use it, simply whip the meringue for 15-20 seconds. keep in mind you really shouldnt leave a meringue sitting around for too long, just long enough to prepare whatever recipe it is you're using the meringue with. maybe 10-15 minutes.


(picture note) notice the last picture of this post has some yokes in it, there's nothing you can do about it, just toss it or save the whites for later use in another recipe.

[jeff]

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[jeff]

Once the meringue starts to form, it moves from soft, medium to stiff peaks rather fast.
I dont have a picture of soft peaks since before I knew it, it went from too soft of peaks to medium peaks.

[jeff]

I just did a basic layer of meringue, nothing fancy. =)