Meringues

Whipping egg Whites and sugar together creates the light yet stable aerated mixture known as a meringue. Meringue is commonly used for topping and filling cakes and pastries. It can also be flavored and dried in a low oven to make cookies; containers that can be used to hold fruit, mousse, or sorbet; or layers for cakes. Meringue is also used as an ingredi ent in mousses and batters to lighten, aerate, and leaven them.

A basic ratio for a meringue is one part egg whites to two parts sugar. As the egg whites are whipped, air is incorporated and the whites break into smaller and smaller globules to form bubbles. When sugar is whipped into the egg whites, the agitation of the mixture and the moisture of the whites begin to dissolve the sugar, which in turn surrounds the air bubbles, coating them and making them more stable.