Italian Meringue Frosting
This is the white cap on the tartlets of everyone's childhood. Unlike a plain meringue, the whites here are cooked by syrup at 118 °C, which is what makes it stable, keeps it from collapsing and makes it safe: the hot syrup brings the egg white up to temperature. You need a thermometer. The thread test exists, but being ten degrees out means either a runny frosting or caramel grit in the whites.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Total
- 30 min
- Servings
- 12
- Level
- Challenging
- Per serving
- 110 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: About 450 g
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Prepare the equipment
Wipe the bowl and whisks with lemon juice and dry them. The faintest trace of fat and the whites will not whip, however long you try.
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Step 2: Start the syrup
Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan, bring to the boil and cook without stirring. Stirring throws sugar onto the sides and the syrup crystallises.
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Step 3: Start the whites
When the syrup reaches 110 °C, start whipping the whites with the salt at medium speed. By the time the syrup is ready they should be at soft foam — no further.
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Step 4: Take the syrup to 118 °C
Cook the syrup to 118–121 °C. Without a thermometer, test in cold water: a drop should roll into a soft ball that holds its shape between your fingers.
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Step 5: Pour in the syrup
With the mixer running, pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl in a thin stream — not onto the whisk, or it flings caramel threads around the sides.
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Step 6: Whip until cool
Keep whipping on high for 8–10 minutes, until the bowl feels cool. The meringue should be snow-white, glossy and standing in a firm peak on the whisk.
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Step 7: Use it straight away
Italian meringue is at its best fresh: spread it on the cake, pipe it into tartlets or brown it with a torch as soon as it is whipped.
Tips & variations
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Tip
The thermometer is not a flourish. At 112 °C the frosting stays runny and slides; at 125 °C the syrup starts caramelising and leaves hard grains in the whites.
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Variation
Beat 300 g of soft butter into the cooled meringue a piece at a time for Italian buttercream, the one cakes are smoothed with.
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Tip
The whites must be at room temperature: cold ones take longer and give less volume. Separate them in advance and leave them out for an hour.
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Storage
Three days covered in the fridge, though it slowly loses volume. On a cake it holds for a week without weeping.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 12 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 110 kcal | 1,320 kcal |
| Protein | 2 g | 24 g |
| Fat | 0 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 26 g | 312 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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