How To Make Italian Meringue

Learning how to make Italian Meringue may be one of the easiest things you can do in the kitchen. And once you make it you’ll never go back to the other methods of making meringue. Italian Meringue is so consistent that you can even make it when it’s pouring outside.

At its core Italian Meringue is just egg whites that are whipped with really hot sugar. The sugar is so hot that it cooks the egg whites, meaning that you don’t have to worry about salmonella. And the combination of the speed of your Kitchen Aid and the heat of the sugar is going to give you an incredibly billowy, incredible stable, meringue.

Bonus: it’s also dead-easy.

So why does the internet shy away from Italian Merginue? I honestly don’t know. I assume it has something to do with people being afraid that you’ll scald yourself with the hot sugar. So fair warning: the sugar is going to be really hot. Please use common sense and don’t burn yourself when making this recipe.

Once you have your Italian Meringue base you can use it to frost a cake (my mother in particular loves a cake that’s frosted with Italian Meringue), pipe it into shapes and bake it in a low oven to make little meringue cookies, beat some butter into it and make the most delicious cake frosting you’ve ever eaten, or use it to cover my S’Mores Brownies.

You can also just spoon it into your mouth.

Enjoy! 😀👍🏻

How To Make Italian Meringue

• Author: Matthew Smedal
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: Several cups of lovely meringue
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: French

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Description

Learning how to make Italian Meringue may be one of the easiest things you can do in the kitchen. At its core it’s egg whites that are whipped with really hot sugar. The sugar is so hot that it cooks the egg whites, meaning that you don’t have to worry about salmonella. And the combination of the speed of your Kitchen Aid and the heat of the sugar is going to give you an incredibly billowy, incredible stable, meringue.

Fair warning: the sugar is going to be really hot. Please use common sense and don’t burn yourself when making this recipe.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (250 grams)
• 1/4 cup water (50 milliliters)
• 4 egg whites (150 milliliters) 
• a little bit of vinegar
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

You will also need a candy thermometer or an instant-read thermometer capable of handling temperatures well above boiling (like a Thermapen).

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Instructions

1. Wipe down the inside of your stand mixer’s mixing bowl with vinegar. Wipe down the whisk attachment of your mixer with vinegar.
2. Place your egg whites in your mixing bowl and fit your mixer with the whisk attachment. Put your sugar and your water and your salt in a saucepan and turn the heat to medium-high.
3. You will cook your sugar until the final temperature is somewhere between 240°F and 244°F (115°C and 118°C). When the sugar hits 220°F (104°C) turn your mixer on medium low and start whipping the egg whites (you want them to be nice and foamy when you add the sugar). One the sugar hits its final temp slowly pour it into your egg whites aiming for the place where the beater and the bowl just touch each other.*
4. Whack the mixer up to medium high and beat 3-5 minutes. When ready, the sides of the bowl will be just slightly warm, no steam will be escaping the top, and if you temp it the meringue will be about 100°F (38°C). The meringue will look like a billowy, shiny, cloud and you will want to eat it right then and there.
5. Add in your vanilla and mix until just combined.

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Notes

*Notes on pouring the sugar into the egg whites: You don’t want to hit the beater with the sugar because it’s moving and it will fling scalding sugar everywhere. You also don’t want to pour the sugar down the side of the bowl as the sugar will start to cool as soon as it hits the metal.** You want to go right into the space between the bowl and the beater.

**Yes, I know the internet will tell you to pour the sugar down the side of the bowl but you know what, sometimes the internet is wrong. 

Keywords: egg whites, meringue