Classic Vanilla Meringue Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the 3 types of meringue? ›

There are several types of meringue, with the three most common being French, Swiss and Italian. Each type varies based on preparation, texture and stability. Knowing the difference between the meringues will help you understand when to use each recipe in your baking.

If you've found that your meringues have gotten soft after you finished baking them, you can actually pop them back in the oven at 225F for another 10-20 minutes (watch them, if they begin to turn golden brown around the edges turn off the heat immediately) and then let them cool in the oven for another hour, this has ...

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.

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.

The difference between the different types of meringue is how the sugar and egg whites are combined. No matter the type, fat is the enemy to a strong meringue. I like to wipe my bowl and whisk down with a bit of vinegar to get rid of any residual fat or grease.

Any kind of grease ruins meringue. That means that your cooking utensils need to be immaculately clean. Even if you're sure they're clean but they've been sitting in your kitchen for a while, run some hot, hot water over them and dry with a clean dish towel or paper towel.

Italian meringue is generally considered to be the most stable of the meringues (which makes it suitable for making frosting too), but also, the most difficult to make of the three meringue types. You'll also need a kitchen thermometer as your mixture has to reach a temperature of 115°C (very hot!).

The Italian meringue is the most stable type of meringue so it is sometimes favoured over using a French meringue, it is stable because the melted sugar cooks the egg whites, resulting in a soft, glossy finish. It is most often used for piping on top of pastries and desserts because it holds its shape so well.

While it's not quite as stable as Italian meringue, Swiss meringue is smoother and denser than French meringue, making it perfect for pavlovas, buttercream frostings, and pies.

Adding sugar before whipping was also not ideal, leading to cakes that baked up a bit too dry. In the case of the meringues, adding the sugar at the start of mixing produced a cookie that was dull on the exterior, with a too-fine crumb within.

Can you over mix meringue cookies? ›

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.

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.

To keep meringues a bright white colour, you need to bake them at a low oven temperature. Usually this is around 95°C (200°F) but can range from 90° to 120°C depending on your oven (if it's fan assisted or not).

Sugar coats the proteins so they won't dry out, stabilizing the egg whites. It also slows down the incorporation of air. Cream of Tartar / Lemon juice: An acid will stabilize the meringue.

The cornflour and vinegar that is added strengthens the egg white and make it more stable and you get the marshmallowy centres from the shorter cooking time.