Perfect Swiss Meringue
Swiss meringue vs Italian meringue vs French meringue
Three different methods of making meringue.
French meringue – Adding fine white sugar to egg whites, while whisking the egg whites. This is the most common way of making meringue.
Italian meringue – A hot sugar syrup with a high sugar concentration is added to the egg whites while whisking the egg whites.
Swiss meringue – The egg whites and sugar are heated together to dissolve the sugar. Then the egg white and sugar mixture is whisked.
Yield: 3 cups
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Special Equipment: double boiler
Ingredients
120 mL egg whites ½ cup (about 4 egg whites from large eggs)
200 g white sugar (1 cup)
½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp fine sea salt
10 mL vanilla bean extract optional, 2 tsp
Directions
Carefully separate the egg whites from the large eggs. I recommend that you separate one egg at a time into a smaller bowl, and then transfer the egg white into the mixer bowl. This way, if 1 egg white gets contaminated with a broken yolk, then the other egg whites are still safe.
Place all the egg whites in the mixer bowl, and add the cream of tartar, salt, and the sugar. Whisk to combine.
200 g white sugar,½ tsp cream of tartar,¼ tsp fine sea salt
Use a medium-sized pot where the mixing bowl can comfortable sit on top without touching the bottom of the pot. Fill the pot with about 2 – 3 inches of water.
Heat the water over medium high heat on your stove and bring it to a simmer. Lower the heat to maintain the simmer.
Place the mixer bowl with the egg whites over the pot with the simmering water.
Using the whisk, stir to continuously move the egg whites while heating it over the double boiler. This will prevent the egg whites from cooking and scrambling.
Heat the egg white mixture until the egg white mixture reaches between 170 – 175°F / 77 – 79°C. This can take about 10 minutes, depending on the stove and mixer bowl. (If you need to stop stirring the egg whites, then remove the bowl from the double boiler until you’re ready to start stirring again.)
Remove the bowl from the double boiler, and place it in your stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
Whisk the egg mixture on medium high speed until you reach stiff peaks. Stop whisking periodically, and take a little of the meringue with the tip of the whisk to create a small peak of meringue. Then check the peak for the consistency of the meringue. See post for more details and reference pictures.
The meringue will first reach soft peaks, where the tip will be very droopy. Then it will reach mid peaks, where the meringue will form a peak that will droop slightly at the tip. And then finally reach stiff peaks, where the meringue will form a peak that stays straight up.
Add the vanilla after the meringue has reached mid peaks, so it has about 1 – 2 minutes to mix through the meringue.
10 mL vanilla bean extract
When the meringue has reached stiff peaks, it's ready to be used immediately for best results. Make sure that any spatulas that will be used are also free of any fat residue as this will cause the meringue to collapse and lose its structure.
