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Meringues and Macaroons
MIXTURES of white of egg and sugar, with or without chopped nuts, when baked in the oven, are a cross between cakes and candies. To secure the best results, materials should be carefully combined and slowly baked. Almonds shelled, blanched, and finely ground are the chief ingredient of almond paste. This can be made at home, or can be purchased ready for use in one pound, five pound, and larger packages, at about the same cost. It is the basis of a large variety of macaroons, and is also used for marzipan fruits, flowers, and vegetables.
Meringues or Kisses White 4 eggs 1 cup fine granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Beat whites of eggs until stiff and add, a spoonful at a time, two thirds cup sugar, beating vigorously between each addition, and continue to beat until mixture will hold its shape. Carefully cut and fold in vanilla and remaining sugar. Drop from tip of spoon, or force through pastry bag and tube on tin sheet or wet board covered with a sheet of paper. Bake thirty minutes in a very slow oven, not allowing them to change color until the last few minutes, when they should become a very delicate brown. Remove from oven, invert paper and kisses, and wet paper with a damp cloth, when kisses may be easily removed.
French Meringues 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup water Whites 5 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla Put sugar and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, and boil to 242 degrees F., or until a firm ball is formed when tried in cold water. When syrup is ready, beat whites of eggs until stiff, and add syrup slowly, continuing the beating. Set dish containing mixture in saucepan of cold water, add vanilla, and fold over and over for five minutes. Cover and let stand for fifteen minutes. Shape with a spoon or pastry bag and tube on a buttered sheet dredged with cornstarch. Sprinkle with pink or yellow sugar, and bake thirty minutes in so slow an oven that the sugar does not discolor. Hearts, wreaths, stars, and roses are attractive shapes.
Two related formulas: a plain French-style meringue built on raw beaten whites, and an Italian meringue set with hot syrup. The oven instructions are the part that needs translating, since "very slow" here means much cooler than most modern recipes describe.
- "A very slow oven"For the kisses, 225F is right; 200F if your oven runs hot. The instruction not to let them color until the last few minutes is the whole technique — you are drying them, not baking them. Thirty minutes will only work for small drops; larger ones need an hour or more, and many cooks turn the oven off and leave them inside to finish.
- "So slow an oven that the sugar does not discolor"For the French meringues, that is around 200F. Colored sanding sugar tends to dull or brown before plain white sugar shows any change.
- Beating the whitesFour whites is roughly 1/2 cup; five is a scant 2/3 cup. A copper or scrupulously clean stainless bowl and a trace of cream of tartar (1/4 teaspoon) help stabilize the foam. Any fat or yolk in the whites and they will not hold shape at all.
- 242F syrupUse a candy thermometer rather than the cold-water test. Pour the syrup in a thin steady stream down the side of the bowl while the mixer runs, not into the beaters, or it will spin into threads on the sides of the bowl.
- Vessels and surfaces"Tin sheet" is a baking sheet; "wet board" is a plank of wood, and neither is needed now — parchment on a heavy sheet pan does the job and the meringues lift straight off, so the damp-cloth trick for releasing them can be skipped. The "buttered sheet dredged with cornstarch" for the French meringues is likewise superseded by parchment.
- Almond pasteStill sold in cans and tubes, and still distinct from marzipan, which carries much more sugar and is meant for modeling. If a macaroon recipe in this chapter calls for almond paste, marzipan will make it cloyingly sweet.
- HumiditySugar draws water from the air. Meringues made on a damp day weep and stay tacky no matter how long they dry, and they should be stored airtight the moment they are cool.
- YieldThe kisses will give roughly two to three dozen small drops; the French meringues, with five whites and twice the sugar, proportionally more. Both keep a week or more in an airtight tin.
Meringue is generally traced to French and Swiss confectionery, with printed recipes appearing from the late seventeenth century onward. Both versions given here were in circulation in American books of this period: the plain beaten-white one, commonly sold as "kisses," and the syrup-built "French" one that holds a piped shape well enough to make hearts, wreaths and roses. Calling these a "cross between cakes and candies" explains why the chapter groups them with almond paste and marzipan work. The note that almond paste can be made at home or bought ready for use "at about the same cost" is a plain piece of practical advice about a commercial product then coming into household use.