French meringue

Since I got some egg whites left over from another thing I did (coming up later), I thought I might as well do what I always tell my self I ought to do whenever I make something with egg yolks: meringue. All you really need is egg-whites and sugar (and some lemon juice) so it should be easy, right? Yeah, theoretically at least...

The recipe I used is straight from Jan Hedh's book “Desserter” (you just know you can trust a baker that looks like him!). So for this you need:

100 g egg whites (refrigerator cold)
1 tsp squeezed lemon
100 g sugar
100 g confectioner's sugar

Heat the oven to 150ºC. Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice until it starts to get fluffy. Add 50 g of sugar and continue whisking (use medium speed if you're using a mixer). Add the rest of the sugar and speed up to full speed. Whisk until it becomes a firm meringue fluff. Stop whisking and sift in the confectioner's sugar. Toss it to a smooth fluff with a dough scraper. Use a pastry bag or just dish it out on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 100ºC and bake for another 1½ hours. Don't keep the oven completely closed. You can also sprinkle a fine cover of confectioner's sugar on top just before baking, it's supposed to make them even crispier.

They're supposed to keep for several weeks if kept in a air tight box. I'll have to get back to you about that, or, maybe they wont survive long enough...


Freshly baked French meringue tops... yummy!