Swiss Meringue

[Matthew Kirshner]

Hi everyone,

 

 just a quick question about swiss meringue,  since the sugar and egg whites are being cooked over a double boiler, is it really nessary to dry the piped pieces in a oven?  Could you possible just pipe and leave at room temp. overnight?

 

I only ask because I am making decor pieces for the buche de noel.   Any insight would be helpful with production work.

 

Matt

[Deryn]

No expert here but the overnight thing isn't about cooking ... it is about drying - and quickly enough so you won't get any mold forming, I would guess. Do you have a dehydrator? That might work too if you want to free up your oven.

[Tri2Cook]

No expert here but the overnight thing isn't about cooking ... it is about drying - and quickly enough so you won't get any mold forming, I would guess. Do you have a dehydrator? That might work too if you want to free up your oven.

A dehydrator works really well actually. 125F for 8-10 hrs. does a nice job with smaller pieces.

 

[jmacnaughtan]

Hi everyone,

 

 just a quick question about swiss meringue,  since the sugar and egg whites are being cooked over a double boiler, is it really nessary to dry the piped pieces in a oven?  Could you possible just pipe and leave at room temp. overnight?

 

I only ask because I am making decor pieces for the buche de noel.   Any insight would be helpful with production work.

 

Matt

 

Cooking it over a water bath is more about dissolving the sugar and pasteurizing the whites.  You really need to bake/dehydrate them to get a crisp result.  Otherwise it'll just be like an Italian meringue, but with a leathery crust and no shelf life.