Meringa? Cha-chinga!

This week, Mia and I made Meringa con Zabaglione, which is a meringue with custard in the center.  We also put chopped strawberries on top for added flavor.  Here is how it went!

After preheating our oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, we placed 5 egg whites in a stainless-steel bowl and beat them in a stand mixer until they turned foamy.  Then, we added 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar and beat the mixture until soft peaks had formed.

Then, in a small pot over low heat, we combined 1 cup of superfine sugar (which we made by running 1 cup plus 2 tsp of white sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds) and 1/2 tsp of water, then stirred to dissolve the sugar.  Once the thermometer we put in reached 236-240 degrees Fahrenheit, we took a spoonful of this syrup and dropped it in a container of cool water.  It formed a soft ball, which meant that it was done!

We started up the mixer again, this time pouring in our hot sugar syrup over the egg white mixture.  We ran the mixer until we achieved stiff peaks.

We scooped spoonfuls of this new mixture onto three parchment-lined baking sheets, and shaped them into cups using the back of a spoon.  We baked them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours.

When they were 20-30 minutes from being done, we started making the zabaglione!

We put about an inch of water in a medium saucepan, covered it with a lid and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and brought it down to a simmer.  In a glass bowl, we combined 5 egg yolks (left over from the eggs we separated to get the whites for the meringa), 1/2 cup of superfine sugar, and 2 tbsp of almond extract.  We placed this bowl over the saucepan and whisked the mixture while it heated, until it was so thick that the whisk formed tracks.  We then performed the 8 second test to ensure that it was done.

After the meringa and the zabaglione were both done, we were ready to serve them together!

We poured the zabaglione into the cups we had formed in the meringa, and topped them off with chopped strawberries.

Here is our conclusion:

Questions:

1) The reason why the egg whites formed a foam in the mixer was because the hydrophilic amino acids in the proteins attached themselves to the water in the egg whites, while the hydrophobic amino acids attached themselves to the air.  Adding cream of tartar, an acid, makes the foam loosely stand up, as it makes the proteins bond with each other.  Adding the sugar syrup did the same thing, making the foam stand in stiff peaks.

2) The sugar was responsible for the thickening of the zabaglione.

3) If the zabaglione is heated past its boiling point, the egg proteins will not be able to hold liquid, so it will separate into solid clumps of egg and a watery liquid.