Meringues: Any top tips?

[Issy]

DD1 and I followed the recipe exactly but in our first ever meringue-baking attempt, the little blighters stuck to the baking parchment and were excessively gooey in the middle.

We cooked them for 5 hours at 50 degrees as the recipe required.

[Elasticwoman]

I do meringues at 100 degrees. Usually on top of lemon tart, so haven't experienced the sticking to parchment problem, but you can buy edible parchment - used to be called rice paper, but not always made of rice these days.

[NikkiH]

My mum swears by cooking them overnight at the lowest oven temperature available and she's also been known to put them in again the following night!

The trick is to dry them out all the way through and then they normally come off the paper without too much problem. I use greaseproof paper and grease it too before I put the meringue on.

Also check how much sugar you're putting in - it's roughly two ounces to every egg white which must be stiffly whipped (until it stays in stiff peaks in the bowl when the bowl is held upside down) before the sugar is added.

HTH

[MakemineaGandT]

I do them at 130 degrees for about an hour, then turn oven off and leave them in there over night to finish drying out in the residual heat.

[RedHead81]

i buy them from tescos!