MERINGUES - Can anyone give me a recipe to keep them lovely and white!!!

[craziehazie]

Took a notion for meringues today, you know the little ones you make pink and white and sandwich them together with fresh cream, well the white ones have turned out pale brownish, and the pink ones also pinkish brownish!!!, what do I need to do so as they retain their colour? Have just been using 50g of sugar to every egg white. Cheers!!

I think it's the cooking rather than the recipe - they're fussy buggers meringues! Perhaps a bit too long in the oven or slightly too hot. Bet they still taste great though. My mum makes them and they are FAR better than the crumbly shop bought ones.

The recipes I've seen recommend you cook them until they're light gold or whatever, so I think they're normally that way.

Put the oven on it's lowest setting
Hang a teatowel over the top (so the door can't close)
Cook overnight (for at least 12 hrs)

So they are 'dried' not 'cooked'

DumbledoresGirl is a meringue expert I think. I made some once following her advice and they were lovely (and white). think it was 2oz sugar per egg white and cooked on the lowerst settign for a good few hours. I added some vanilla essence too.

If you want to keep the meringues white don'tcook them or put them into a scolding hot oven. The best way is to pipe out the meringue to whatever shape you desire. Pre heat the oven to 50F. place the meringue into the oven, middle shelf and leave them to dry out. The idea of a meringue is to dry it out not to cook it. But there are meringues for example where you have to cook the mix Good exaples of that are Italian and Swiss meringues. Hope this helps.
Happy cooking,
Wil

The other way I've done it is a recipe where you make a boiled sugar syrup and pour it onto the whisked egg whites so the hot syrup cooks the egg.
They were really bright white, but my sister (who has the recipe book) is currently in Hong Kong.

Will see if I can source it from somewhere else...

Oooh,I made a pavlova this afternoon,no reason beyond raspberries being on special offer.

Why is it when I make a meringue for a 'special' occasion it turns out cack but if I whip it up in 5 minutes and bung it in the oven,whilst making a bookcase and having three boys fighting in the kitchen,it turns out perfect?

It's a golden colour by the way,I thought home made ones were supposed to be like that.

Very very very difficult to make meringues white, as everyone has said its in the cooking not the recipe. ou need to dry them out ratehr than cook them lowest possible oven temperature for a long time, een turning the oven off and leaving them in it to cool down overnight.

IMO they should be a creamy colour, crispy/crunchy on the outside and soft marshmallow-y in the centre. Will tast much better than the pale white ones.

Delias recipe works a treat if you have it - no vinagar no cornflower nothing, just eggs and sugar.

I agree with you sugarfree. When i am at home the best ones are golden brown. In my opinion golden browm meringues have a better flavour.
When i am at work i have to tell the pastry section to cook them correctly without colour. If they do turn brown what i usually do is break them up and make dessert menu's incorparating the meringues, so i can get away with it that way. To cook them perfectly i leave them in the hotplate cupboard as it is the perfect tempreature to dry them out.

my lovely mother has scanned the hot-syrup very-white meringue recipe for me and to be honest it sounds like damn hard work - can't think what ever possessed me to try it.

It makes loads too so halve the quantities unless you're baking for a fete or something

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