Try Baking These Dreamy Lime Meringue Bars
Light and airy meringue is the stuff of dreams. Made of just egg whites and sugar, it magically transforms into something that’s so much more than the sum of its parts.
French meringue is the simplest to make. The egg whites are simply whipped while sugar is gradually added. This meringue needs to be baked.
Swiss meringue starts with sugar and egg whites gently heated in a double boiler until the sugar is completely dissolved. It’s then whipped into a dense, silky cloud. Swiss meringue is the base of for my favorite kind of buttercream frosting.
This recipe calls for Italian meringue, in which sugar and water are cooked to 240 degrees F and then gradually whipped into egg whites. I like Italian meringue for topping pies and tarts, because of its stability and creamy texture.
Get the Recipe: Lime Meringue Bars
Meringue is easy to make, but there are a few steps you can take to make it foolproof. First of all, it’s good to know that cold eggs are easier to separate, but room-temperature whites make for better meringue. So be sure to give your whites a little time on the counter before getting to work.
Secondly, make sure to keep all bits of egg yolk out of the whites. Fat, which is found in yolks, is meringue’s worst enemy. And double-check that all of your tools and bowls are spotlessly clean and fat-free as well.
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Samantha Seneviratne is a New York-based writer, recipe developer and food stylist. She is the author of The New Sugar and Spice (Ten Speed Press), a baking cookbook combining family stories and food history with recipes that reimagine dessert as a more balanced mix of sugar and spice. She blogs about dessert at Love, Cake.
