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Make FRENCH Meringue

The traditional meringue, broken down

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk 2. With mixer on low speed, add sugar in a slow, steady stream,
attachment, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt at beating until combined. (This should take about 3 minutes.) With
medium-low speed until soft peaks form, 5 to 6 minutes. meringue, slow and steady always wins the race. If you dump all
This first step is crucial to creating a stable, smooth meringue. of your sugar in at once, you risk collapsing the egg foam and are

Your egg mixture should have a droop to its peaks but still guaranteeing a gritty meringue, as the sugar won’t be smoothly
be cohesive. If you add the sugar in at the beginning, before incorporated and won’t dissolve. Try streaming in the sugar
whipping the whites into a soft peak, the meringue will come 1 teaspoon (4 grams) at a time to keep from overloading
out dense and not whip up nearly as well. the mixture.

3. Increase mixer speed to medium, and beat until thick and shiny, 10 to 12 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl halfway

through mixing. Over these 10 to 12 minutes, your meringue will go through three stages: soft peak, medium peak, and stiff peak.
Above, you can see what that looks like. When your whisk attachment is inverted, your meringue peak will either droop, dip, or stand

tall. You want that meringue standing tall, ensuring it can be piped and hold its shape. Another sign your meringue is ready? Rub
meringue between two fingers to make sure it’s smooth, showing the sugar has dissolved.

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