Sweet Dreams Bake Shoppe

Sweet Dreams Bake Shoppe
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Friday, 1 February 2013

A Little Bit about Meringues

December 26, 2012

                I guess it is no secret that I have made many sugar cookies in the past year (but if it is, please take a look at my gallery). There’s just something so enticing about creating art on edible mediums. I promise to all of you fellow bakers out there that I will have many posts solely dedicated to sugar cookies in the future. From the baking of the actual sugar cookie to all of the icing tips and tricks I have picked up along my baking journey. This past Christmas season I have decorated dozens and dozens of Christmas themed cookies and a few princess ones too so I am taking a very short break from baking sugar cookies. Now onto more macaron madness!
Today I got a macaron recipe book from one of my very good friends (and occasional assistant). Apparently I had mentioned months ago that I wanted this macaron book and she just had to get it for me (isn’t she great?). It’s filled with a few different macaron methods. There’s the Italian method, the French method and, what this particular book called, the ‘easiest macaron method’. The difference between the Italian method and French and ‘Easy’ method mainly lies in the preparation of the meringue. I suggest that if you are going to attempt to make macarons, be sure that you are confident in your meringue making skills.
The Italian method requires the boiling of sugar and water and incorporating this directly into the egg whites. The difficulty with this method is that you absolutely need a digital candy thermometer (too much fiddling and lack of precision with non-digital thermometers), a stand mixer, octopus arms or insanely fast hands. Some recipes swear by the fact that you do not need a candy thermometer to test the temperature/stage of the sugar water. Many recipes suggest dropping a spoonful of the sugar water into a cup of cold water to test the various stages. However, in my experience I have either ended up burning cups and cups of sugar water or I have produced a weirdly textured meringue.  The other problem is that if you only have a hand mixer or your own hand with a whisk, you will not be able to beat the egg whites fast enough without the bowl shifting as you will need at least one hand to pour the hot sugar water slowly into the egg whites. Despite the cons that have been presented, I do stand by the fact that if you do have the proper tools, this method is the most reliable. We shall see if this method works well in terms of making macarons.
The French method requires absolutely no boiling of sugar or water which is why this method is my absolute favourite for making meringues. You do not need a thermometer, stand mixer or any fancy, expensive equipment. That being said, this method is a little less reliable. I have noticed that the meringues tend to flop if you add the sugar too fast or if the temperature in the room is slightly high. I’ve heard from many people that if the weather outside is wet, your meringues are sure to flop. I’m not a strong believer in that theory as I live in Vancouver, the city of rain, and I am still able to whip up meringues regardless of the season.
                I have solely based this research on my own personal experience so take it with a grain of salt…or sugar.

Beautiful Baking Fellow Sweeties

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