Meringues

Directions
Preparation:20min  ›  Cook:10hours2min  ›  Ready in:10hours22min 

1. Beat egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. Use an electric whisk first at low speed, then at a higher speed.
2. Gradually add lemon juice and the caster sugar. Keep beating egg white mixture until it is very shiny and sugar has dissolved.
3. Mix icing sugar and cornflour; sift onto egg white mixture. Fold in using a spatula. To retain the air sealed in the mixture, do not stir.
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place meringue mixture in a piping bag. Hold bag upright and pipe mixture into individual portions on the tray.
5. Place baking tray in preheated oven. Immediately close the oven door. After 2–3 minutes, turn off the oven; do not open for 8 hours.
6. For meringues that are to be filled with cream, use your thumb to carefully make an indent in the base of the still slightly moist meringues 1 hour before the end of the drying time.

Note

• Only use cold egg whites straight from the refrigerator. It also helps to chill the bowl beforehand.
• Even the smallest trace of fat in the bowl or trace of yolk in the egg white will stop the egg white from becoming stiff, so take care not to damage the eggs when separating them.
• When piping the mixture onto the baking tray, avoid making long peaks as these quickly go brown during the drying process.
• Place meringues on a wire rack when done. They're easy to remove from the baking paper. They should be crisp to the touch, dry inside and not browned.
• Remove meringues that are to be filled with cream 1 hour early from the oven. Gently make an indent in the bottom, then return meringues to the oven to finish drying. To serve, pipe cream into a meringue shell; place a second one on top.

Cooking Times

SLOW-DRYING METHOD
Oven temperature 200°C; middle rack; cooking time 2–3 minutes, then switch off oven and dry for 8–12 hours.

QUICK-DRYING METHOD
Oven temperature 100–120°C; middle rack; drying time 2–3 hours

Try this, too…

• Try piping the meringue mixture into different shapes: rosettes, rings or stars, or as wavy lines on a fruit tart. The mixture can also be tinted with 1–2 drops of food colouring.
• The mixture turns an attractive pale brown if 1–2 tbsp of instant coffee or cocoa powder are dissolved in 1 tablespoon water and folded into egg white mixture with icing sugar and cornflour.
• Try downsizing. Using the basic recipe, make 40 small meringues. Pipe dots onto prepared baking tray and dry slowly for 1–2 hours.