How to beat egg whites

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Beat egg whites is very common in cooking and pastry, here are some tips to get there easily.

You should not beat egg yolks at high speed to start with

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You should not start beating egg yolks and caster sugar at high speed, because this splashes drops of egg yolk against the sides of the bowl, which then go hard as they dry.

You should not leave egg yolks in contact with sugar

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You should not leave egg yolks in contact with sugar for too long without beating them, because this contact "cooks" egg yolks and you will get small lumps of hard egg in your mixture.

Hollandaise sauce

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This sauce is quite similar to Béarnaise sauce, but with a light lemon flavour. It can be used hot, warm or cold on several things: vegetables, fish, eggs... Not easy to get right, like all "emulsified warm sauces" (Béarnaise, Hollandaise, etc.), but you will find all the tips you need here.

Swiss meringues

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Swiss meringues are a variant of the classic French meringue. The eggs whites and sugar are beaten together in a bain-marie at first, then beaten stiff as normal. This makes for a firmer meringue which can be used to make small items or figures to decorate cakes or ice creams (such as mushrooms, snowmen, etc.).

Mexican-style pork medallions

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For this recipe with a Mexican flavour (New Mexican, actually), I have used tender medallions of pork fillet mignon. These are first marinated in a spicy oil then pan-fried with the remaining marinade. Serve with green beans and sauce made with a reduced vegetable stock in the frying pan.

Chestnut moelleux

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"Moelleux" means soft, and is also the name given to the gooey, soft-centred cakes that are popular in France. These muffin-style cakes are doubly chestnutty: there is chestnut purée in the mixture and pieces of marrons glacés (candied chestnuts) in the middle as well. The result is a little melt-in-the-mouth treat.

Gâteau Nantais

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This traditional cake from the French city of Nantes is deliciously moist, flavoured with almonds, vanilla and rum. For the finishing touch, the top is covered with boozy white icing.

Fish in white wine

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This recipe for cooking fish in the oven is both simple and delicious. The fish is cooked with herbs and onions in white wine. It is served in a light sauce, made with the cooking juices and a little lemon juice.

Toffee apple upside-down cake

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With a flavour reminiscent of the French classic tart tatin, this cake is made with a ring of tart apples arranged on a layer of caramel, then covered with the batter. After baking, the cake is turned out while still hot so that the caramelized apples are on the top with the moist cake underneath.

Amaretti

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Amaretti are little Italian almond biscuits. They are a bit like meringues, very sweet, and made with ground almonds.

Oaty walnut cake

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This is a moist-textured walnut cake with rolled oats, but the real secret comes from dry-roasting the nuts before adding them to the mixture.

Nougat

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Nougat is a sweet made with honey and almonds that has changed very little since ancient times. The nougat we know today is the Montelimar variety, in which egg whites are added to the basic recipe for a lighter texture. Here is a simplified version.

Key Lime Pie for Jeremy

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Key Lime Pie is a famous speciality from the Keys region of southern Florida. This delicious tart is usually made with Key limes - a special variety. But in this simplified version, normal limes will work perfectly well.

Marchand de vin sauce

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The rich "marchand de vin" sauce, made with red wine and shallot, is a classic accompaniment for meats that is traditionally made in the roasting tin or dish. This is a simplified version that can be made while the meat is cooking, even beforehand, so there is no risk of it going cold.

How to succeed in making sabayon (syllabub)

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A sabayon is a delicious and delicate preparation based on egg yolks and sugar, with a liquid added (wine, alcohol, fruit juice, etc), which is then whipped in a bain-marie until it is both light and smooth. Usually sabayon is sweet (syllabub), but you can make it savoury, in which case there is only egg yolk, salt, and the chosen liquid, which could be stock, reduced wine, roasting juices, etc... This recipe is for a sweet sabayon, using just two egg yolks. You will need to adapt quantities...

Génoise (Genoa sponge)

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A Génoise (or Genoa sponge) is a very light and delicate cake. It is good on its own, but is more often used as the base for many different French-style gâteaux, with layers of mousse or cream between 2 (or more) layers of sponge. It is a tricky recipe to get right, rather technical, but here's a simple and very effective method.

Pistachio tiramisu

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In this slightly unusual tiramisu, the classic Amaretto is partially replaced by whisky, which goes better with the pistachio flavour.

Fraisier (French strawberry cake)

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This classic French patisserie is a delicious assembly of 2 layers of genoa sponge filled with strawberries and crème mousseline (confectioner's custard with butter). The sponge is soaked in strawberry syrup and the cake is topped with a thin layer of marzipan.

Peach and verbena feuilleté

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In French, a "feuilleté" can be anything, sweet or savoury, wrapped in or with a base of puff pastry, from a sausage roll to a millefeuille. This is an elegant tart-style feuilleté with a caramelized pastry base, topped with a light custard flavoured with verbena. This is based on a confectioner's custard (french pastry cream), lightened with meringue. On this bed of delicious custard, the finishing touch is a double rosette of peeled fresh peach slices.

One day, in the comments on the recipe for beaten egg whites, a young woman asked if you could beat egg whites stiff while having a period, as a friend had told her it wasn't possible. Sometime later another person commented that for mayonnaise it had been (get this!) scientifically proven that a...
February 6^th 201154 K4.4

Meringue – what could be simpler? Just beaten egg whites with sugar added. This makes a fairly stiff mixture which can then be cooked in a cool oven to create those lovely, light confections. But in the world of professional patisserie, meringue comes in three different kinds. Even if the...
June 14^th 201368 K4.5

Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
February 28^th 201846 K4.3

Whether we call it a stand mixer, food processor, or simply refer to it by brand (Kenwood, KitchenAid, etc.), this machine is a valuable tool for amateur cooks, bakers or pastry chefs like ourselves. All these machines come supplied with 3 different tools. Let’s take a look at their names and...
November 2^nd 201940 K4.5

Monter au beurre

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Adding cold butter to a hot liquid a little at a time, while beating with a whip to make a smooth sauce.
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Whisk

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For beating (eggs) or whipping (cream) a preparation (like a sabayon for exemple), to mix thoroughly, and especially to incorporate air.
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