Meringues

PaddyJules

Made meringues yesterday but they were terrible. Have made them a few times before but never had this problem. They were hollow inside and the bottom of them was thick and very chewy. What went wrong??

My recipe was 2 egg whites and 4 oz caster sugar. Piped onto baking sheet and baked at 120 in fan oven for 30 mins and then turned down oven to 100 and baked for another 30 mins.

Magic Monkey

120c is too high.

Bake at 100c with fan for 1 hour, and prop the oven door open slightly with a folded tea towel or wooden spoon handle. They may need 15 mins extra. Once done, turn off the oven, open the door wider and leave them there until cool. You can add a few drops of lemon juice too to your meringue mix.

sarahlulu

and a drop of vanilla essense

Sigma Force

Here's the recipe I use always works.

4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour

Whisk egg whites until soft peaks, gradually whisk in half the sugar until stiff and glossy then fold in the rest of the sugar and the cornflour (I usually just wisk in the rest).

Bake at 140 for about an hour changing the position of the baking trays halfway through.
Then turn off the oven without opening the oven door and leave them to cool inside. I tend not to leave the door open slightly but I guess that would work too.

140 works perfectly for my cooker might be different for other cookers.
Which is odd because I just checked and the cooker manual says to cook meringues at 80.

Perhaps better off going with magic monkeys temp guide.
The recipe above makes around 8 or a decent sized pavlova.

Am going to have to make a load of meringues now and try various temps to see which ones are the best, any excuse though. num num

PaddyJules

Thanks all. Will try them at the weekend at a lower temp and see what happens. Will let you know !