Preggers Friendly Meringues!

Here's how to make pasteurised meringues...

There appears to be a total baby boom in Brighton at the moment – I have four friends who are expecting in the New Year, and they are not just missing wine!

I think the current recommendations on what to eat and what to avoid largely concern foods that are not pasteurised – like certain cheeses and also meringue. The problem with meringue is that whilst it seems to be a cooked (well baked) food it isn’t necessarily pasteurised. Ok so you bake a Pavlova for an hour in an oven but you are essentially drying out the meringue rather than baking it at a high temperature.

Fear not – I have the solution; either (1) use pasteurised egg white or (2) pasteurise it yourself! By using a pasteurised egg white to begin with you can follow your usual recipe – if you want to pasteurise it yourself you will need to follow my recipe below.

The Science

1. You can buy pasteurised liquid egg white from most supermarkets, I know they stock Two Chicks Pasteurised Free Range Liquid Egg White in Sainsbury’s. I would avoid powdered egg white as it is a bit of a faff to work with and the proteins in the egg seem weakened to me – meaning not stiff enough peaks!  

2. Pasteurised meringues are simple enough to make at home from the eggs in your fridge. You are going to need a sugar thermometer (which you can buy from a cookware shop or online for a few pounds) and a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler you can fashion one from a saucepan and a bowl that sits inside but comfortably clears the bottom of the saucepan, oh and a saucepan lid which roughly fits the top of the bowl is helpful – if you haven’t got one the right size foil will do just fine. The reason you need a double boiler rather than just throwing the ingredients in a saucepan is because the direct heat will turn your meringue-to-be into anaemic scrambled egg.

Pasteurised Meringue Recipe

  

Ingredients:

6 Large egg whites

425g Granulated sugar

Equipment:

Double boiler and lid

Heat proof spoon

Sugar thermometer

Mixer with the balloon whisk attachment – or a hand whisk and a strong wrist

A piece of greaseproof paper

Baking tray or cookie sheet

Method:

1. When you separate the egg whites from the yolks make sure you don’t split the yolk and get any in the white – not even a spec. The reason for this is that the yolk contains the fat and fat will prevent the egg whites from whipping up. Separate them one at a time and make sure all of your equipment is super clean before the egg whites come into contact.

2. Make sure there is water in your double boiler to touch the bottom of the liner or bowl. 

Turn your hob on to a medium heat and put the double boiler on the heat.

3. Put the egg whites and the sugar into the double boiler and stir to combine. It will fee gritty as you stir. Put the lid on the double boiler and leave for 5 mins.

After 5 mins stir the mixture – what you’re aiming for is for the sugar to melt and the mixture to be silky and smooth when stirring. Keep returning to the pan and stirring the contents until all the sugar granules have melted. You then want to put your sugar thermometer into the mixture - to ensure the mixture is pasteurised. The key is to get the temperature up to 75 degrees Celsius for 30 seconds - you will need to keep stirring to make sure the egg white doesn’t cook. You can turn out the heat now.

4. Now your mixture is pasteurised!

5. Preheat the oven to 100-120 degrees Celsius.

6. Poor the contents into the mixer bowl or a clean ceramic or glass bowl if you don’t have a mixer. Or if you are very posh a copper bowl.

7. Turn on the mixer to a low speed to begin with (this relaxes the proteins in the egg white) and then turn it up to high speed. Leave to do it’s thing for 8-10 mins.

8. You should return to a luscious white meringue with the whisk creating stiff peaks when it is lifted clear of the mixture.

9. You can then spoon the mixture (with a metal spoon) onto your greaseproof-papered-baking-tray. You could opt for big dollops to make meringues that are sandwiched together with cream and fresh fruit, or you could go for one large Pavlova nest. If you want to make a depression in the middle to add your fruit to later - take a metal spoon in a bowl of hot water and use the back of the spoon to flatten the centre slightly.

1. Now pop your creation in the oven and leave for 45mins-1hr, the larger the meringue the longer it will need to dry out. I leave a Pavlova for an hour and then just turn the oven off – without taking the nest out – it will be fine to cool and dry out in there.       

I hope you found that useful - you could of course send our pasteurised Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes instead! If you do have a go let me know how you get on...!

Rachael x