Quick Tip: How To Keep Meringue Crispy (2024)

FAQs

Quick Tip: How To Keep Meringue Crispy? ›

The trick is to store the baked, cooled meringues in the freezer, where the dry, cold air prevents them from attracting moisture and losing their crispness. This means you can make plain meringue cookies anytime, yes, but you'll also have so many other desserts waiting at your fingertips.

The trick is to store the baked, cooled meringues in the freezer, where the dry, cold air prevents them from attracting moisture and losing their crispness. This means you can make plain meringue cookies anytime, yes, but you'll also have so many other desserts waiting at your fingertips.

Add cornstarch to the meringue to stabilize it.

Cornstarch helps the meringue keep its shape, making it a good ingredient addition if you're worried about your meringue weeping. Add about 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of cornstarch into the meringue as you're whipping it so it will absorb some of the extra moisture.

‌Solution: Leave meringues to cool in the oven.

You can also use the oven to re-crisp soggy or stale meringues. Put them in at a low temperature for ten minutes.

One of the most common mistakes is not beating the eggs long enough, or on too slow a speed, which means the egg whites won't reach stiff peak stage and instead only reach a soggy droopy stage.

If you don't have a kitchen blowtorch, preheat a grill to high and cook for 30 seconds–1 minute or until lightly golden brown.

Fixing runny meringue is usually as simple as whisking more air into the mixture and waiting for it to develop stiff peaks. You can also add another egg white or a teaspoon of cornstarch to get the mix to the consistency you need.

The most common way to ward off a soggy pie crust is by a process called blind baking. Blind baking means you pre-bake the crust (sometimes covered with parchment or foil and weighed down with pie weights to prevent the crust from bubbling up) so that it sets and crisps up before you add any wet filling.

You may have opened the oven door while they were cooking or, if you flavoured the mixture, you could have added too much liquid. Meringues can crack because of the sudden change in temperature. To prevent this happening, turn the oven off when the meringues are cooked but leave them inside until completely cool.”

Beat a mixture of thickened cornstarch and water into the egg whites to bind and stabilize the liquid in the meringue (and keep it from seeping out). Cook the filling for the full 2 minutes on the stove top so the cornstarch thickens completely and doesn't start breaking down and "leaking" during chilling.

How do you stabilize meringue? ›

A small amount of cream of tartar or vinegar can be added to the mixture at the beginning of whipping to help stabilize the foam and make it less likely to collapse. Don't use plastic bowls—they can retain a film of fat from previously mixed or stored items that can deflate the meringue.

Quickly spread the meringue over the hot pie filling. Spread the meringue to the edge of the pie pastry to seal it and prevent it from shrinking as it bakes. The hot filling helps cook the meringue from underneath and prevents weeping (a layer of moisture that forms between the meringue and filling).

If you don't have a container of a suitable size then wrap the meringue, still on its baking sheet, with a double layer of clingfilm. We suggest "overwrapping" where the clingfilm is wrapped over the top of the meringue and underneath to bottom of the baking sheet, to make it as airtight as possible.

Some recipes call for a small amount of cream of tartar or cornstarch, which helps stabilize the meringue and prevent it from deflating.

If you plan to make meringue and it's an especially rainy or damp day—don't. Meringue is sensitive to extreme weather, especially the aforementioned humidity. Excess moisture in the air can seep into meringues and make them soft, even after they are baked, which is why it's best to avoid making meringue on damp days.

If there is any humidity though then the fridge is the best place to store them as they can get sticky/chewy in response to humidity. Placing them in the fridge fixes that quickly though. They are also freezer friendly for four months if you want to freeze them.

Make meringue pie on dry, low-humidity days. Don't overbake your meringue! Overbaking causes the egg whites to shrink and squeeze out small droplets of moisture. Always make sure to check on your pie at the minimum baking time.

Store the meringue cookies in an airtight container layered with parchment paper at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

I heat the oven to relatively high, then turn it right down as soon as the meringue is in, so it puffs up.” As Lepard says, “You are not so much cooking meringue as drying it out, so there's no great mystery to a chewy one: just cook it for less time than you normally do.”