Fruit Meringues

Free

Difficulty: Low
Time: 20 minutes (plus baking/dehydrating time about 4h)
Quantity: About 60 meringues
Type: Snacks and Small Pastries
Dietary requirements: Nut-free Gluten-free Cream-free Vegan

Ingredients

100 g fruit purée (blackcurrant)

10 g powdered aquafaba*

100 g granulated sugar

We have already seen how to make classic white meringues and how to replace egg whites; in those white meringues we used liquid aquafaba, read the recipe. In this recipe instead we will see how to make fruit meringues. For this we will need fruit purée, which can be a ready purée bought in a carton (which I recommend) or a homemade purée, for example by blending and sieving strawberries. Using ready purée is simpler especially for some types of fruit where it is difficult to obtain a good purée (without seeds, fluid, rich in colour and flavour) like passion fruit, apple, or cherries where to make a good quantity of purée you need a lot and therefore it is also more economical to buy it ready. The purée used in this recipe is blackcurrant purée, so we obtain meringues of a bright pink. By whipping and incorporating air the meringue becomes progressively lighter so the colour will never be that of the initial purée, therefore a pink purée like strawberry will give meringues of a very very light pink. Egg white is made up of about 90% water and about 10% proteins. We therefore use the purée in place of the watery part; we therefore need the protein part that will allow this purée to be whipped, so we use powdered aquafaba. This hydrates in the purée and then whips like a traditional egg white, gradually adding the sugar until the meringue is obtained.

Method

Preheat the static oven to 90˚C. Prepare 2 baking trays with parchment paper. In one bowl weigh the fruit purée, in another the powdered aquafaba and in another the granulated sugar. Pour the purée into the mixer bowl (you can also do it by hand with electric whisks).

Add the powdered aquafaba, mix well with a whisk to dissolve it into the purée. Attach the whisk to the mixer and start whipping at medium-high speed. After a couple of minutes when it begins to incorporate air, pour the granulated sugar little by little while continuing to whip.

The sugar should not be added all at once, but a tablespoon at a time as you whip. Continue to whip at high speed for several minutes until you obtain a glossy, aerated, stable meringue. The meringue will be ready when, turning the bowl upside down, it stays in place and does not fall, or when it stays well attached to the whisk without falling. It will take between 5 and 10 minutes to whip it well.

Transfer the meringue into a piping bag with a decorative tip of your choice; the one used in this recipe is a closed star no.11. Tip to make the parchment stick well to the tray and avoid it moving: make a mini dollop of meringue, one in each corner, and place the parchment on top.

Pipe now the meringues making small peaks all of the same size. Make many small meringues until the mixture is finished. There is no need to space them much since they do not grow much in baking. Bake, or rather dry - dehydrate, the meringues in the oven at 90˚ for about 4 hours, with the vent open or inserting a spoon in the door to let the humidity escape. You can use a fan oven if the fan is not too powerful, but a static oven is fine as long as a spoon is placed in the door to let the humidity out.

They must be well dry and come off the parchment. The time varies based on the size of the meringues. It is important that the temperature is low to avoid cracks and to prevent them from turning yellow. Turn off the oven, open it and let them cool completely inside.

Storage

Meringues must not absorb moisture or be stored in the fridge otherwise they become sticky. It is necessary to store them in an airtight container, in a cool dry place; even better if silica gel sachets (available online) are placed in the container to absorb moisture. They can be stored for more than 1 month if kept optimally.

Tips

The purée used is a ready blackcurrant purée from Ravifruit, read the article where to buy pastry ingredients and products to purchase it. *Powdered aquafaba can be substituted with potato protein powder or soy protein. In this article you can deepen the topic How to replace egg whites If you have problems whipping aquafaba I recommend reading this article where I give some tips and mistakes not to make to whip it better. Do not reduce the amount of sugar, otherwise the whip will be less stable. The powdered aquafaba used is from In-Vece. It is recommended to read these articles: - which ingredients to use - where to buy pastry ingredients and products