How to bake the typical French meringues step by step: the Italian way!

I really can’t tell you that everything in my kitchen always goes well. Sometimes things go wrong, sometimes unbelievable things happen… . As a nutritionist I must be really tidy and punctual, in my job, but when I get into my kitchen my muddling clumsy soul gets the better of me. Last weekend I prepared some mascarpone cream (well it was not just a cream, it was the best one I had ever made!). I had plenty of the egg whites left…I could not certainly throw them away! So, I made my first ‘real’ meringue cookies ever. Yes, the recipe looks very easy, it may be a child’s play…not at all! The traps are in the oven! Their cooking is quite tricky, but I have successfully overcame it!

To be honest, I had a little funny accident: I was squeezing that devilish slice of lemon which make s the meringue cookies shiny and glittering, when it almost blew up onto my face. Well you could not squeeze it into the bowl of the stand mixer, but I washed my face. Good, actually not very good! Next time I am going to wear mask, flippers and swimsuit to make meringue cookies!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword easy meringues, meringues

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 2

Total Time 2 15

Ingredients

6 egg whites at room temperature (200g)
440 gr of powdered sugar
1 tbsp of lemon juice (14ml)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175°F (80°C);
Weigh the egg whites directly in the bowl of the stand mixer and whisk at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid);
Add 1 cup (220g) of sugar but only a little at a time. Let the mixer run for a couple of minutes and then increase the speed (to 8);
Add the lemon juice and beat at a high speed (10) for about 10 minutes until stiff peaks form. Test your foam with a visual test—if you turn the bowl upside down, the foam shouldn’t fall out. The foam should be glossy;
If you have a pastry bag, fill it with foam by adding it carefully to the bag. Use the star tip and pipe out the foam into 1-inch (3 cm) mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Keep them uniform so that they bake evenly. If spooning them out, keep them as high (in mounds) as possible. Remember to leave enough space between them because they will increase in size. Meringues must be baked as soon as they are spooned or piped out.
Bake them on a parchment-lined cookie tray in a static oven for 2 hours so that they dry very slowly. Meringues are done when the center is dry. Let them cool down completely and remove them from the tray. As their baking is quite long you should prepare the meringues the day before and leave them in the oven until it cools down completely.