Boom!

Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to my house.

What fun we're going to have baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads right here in my own kitchen.

Charlotte Akoto, head baker at New York City's William Greenburg and Son demonstrates her craft and creativity with these airy, light meringues.

Join us on... [Captioning sponsored by VIEWERS LIKE YOU] We're going to learn all about how to make meringues today.

And lookit, here are just some of the things we have: little meringue sandwiches with chocolate in between and here is a chocolate meringue with a caramel cream filling and here is a meringue Napoleon.

And pastry chef Charlotte Akoto is going to tell us all about meringues from beginning to the biting up and eating of them.

I begin with a cup of egg whites and eight egg whites is a cup.

Okay, so I'm going to put that in the machine.

Into your spotlessly clean machine.

Yes, it's very clean.

And turn it on.

I have to put a pinch of salt in it.

That also helps it to rise better.

Okay.

This is going to whip, like, medium peaks and then you need two cups of sugar.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put 1½ cups of sugar halfway during the beating, and then once it stiffens I'm going to add the last half cup to finish it.

So I'm going to add my 1½ cups of sugar now.

Good.

Okay, now I'm going to add the last half cup of sugar.

Now they're done.

Let's... now, how do we know that they're done?

I'm going to stick the whisk in it.

If you can tell it has nice, firm peaks when you pull the whisk up.

Mm-hmm, and it is shiny and nice, isn't it?

Yes, it had a nice, glossy look to it.

Okay, there you are.

This is my pastry bag already with a nice star tip for the meringue cookies.

You could use any pastry tip you want.

But these are nice and completely plastic.

Yes, these are disposable plastic pastry bags.

Mm-hmm.

And I think it works good for meringues because most pastry bags usually have grease in them...

Yes, that would deflate them right away.

It deflates it.

And you take a half of it.

That is lovely.

It's so... Nice and firm.

Yeah, and shiny and beautiful.

Yes.

So I'm going to put this here.

Put that back in there.

Yes.

Now I'll put this on the side if you want to hold it and then I'll keep this going at a very low speed so that it'll still keep the air in it.

You don't want to leave it sitting there too long because that also deflates.

It will deflate it.

Then we have already prepared a sheet pan with parchment in it.

I'm going to pipe little different shapes of meringues.

You've really got to practice with the pastry bag, don't you?

That's true.

I just started with the tip against the paper and then I move around.

Nice swirl.

I'll try one, see if I... You want to try one?

You put it against... against the paper.

Uh-huh.

Push up a bit of the meringue... yes.

That's it.

You want to try another shape?

No.

( both chuckle ) I'm going to pipe another shape-- just plain shells like that.

That's nice.

That's easier, right?

It's that little sort of little jerk and lift at the end isn't it?

Yes.

Then I'm going to pipe logs.

See that?

Yeah.

I'm going to pipe little Ss.

The idea with meringues is you're not to bake it at a high temperature.

You're just going to dry it out in the oven for a long time.

You have to be very patient with meringues.

So this is ready to go in an oven and like I said we don't want to cook it at too high a temperature.

Mm-hmm.

So when you set the oven set it not more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit or not lower than 175 degrees.

It's not supposed to color at all.

It's not supposed to color.

And this goes in for about between 30 to 45 minutes.

Mm-hmm.

We have some that are already done.

This is what they look like.

And as you can tell, there's barely color.

And they come off.

Yes, they come off of the tray easy and it's nice and crispy.

That's how you want it.

Now we're going to go back to the machine and do the chocolate meringue.

You see it's still keeping its shape?

Yeah, that's beautiful.

I'm going to sift a half a cup of cocoa powder which is already measured out here.

And this I sift because the lumps will cause problems when you're piping the meringue so you always have to make sure you don't have any lumps in it.

And then I'm going to add a half a cup of powdered sugar.

Also we have to sift the powdered sugar, yes.

The powdered sugar always has a lot of lumps in it, doesn't it?

It does have a lot of lumps in it so.. when you add the cocoa to the meringue it causes it to deflate so that the powdered sugar is going to help it to keep its shape.

That stabilizes the meringue for the chocolate.

Okay, so we're ready.

It's all nicely sifted.

Now I'm going to fold this into the meringue.

Okay, so I'm going to add this slowly, half at a time and I'm going to fold it.

And look at how I'm doing it.

I'm going to do it in a nice, gentle fold.

You don't want to mix it too hard.

You don't want to deflate the meringue so you have to be gentle with your folding.

You can see that it's already thickening it up a little bit.

Yes, it is.

You go all the way down and bring up the spatula again.

And then you cut into it.

You cut into the next.

May I have the last?

All of it?

Yes.

It's really getting kind of dry, isn't it?

It is, yeah, but it's all going to mix up, so...

In other words, don't panic, just keep folding.

No, just keep folding it, yes.

You really have to get it all incorporated, don't you?

You have to mix it well because you don't want any uneven streaks in the meringues.

We're all done.

And you probably want this.

Yes, a pastry bag.

We have a tray already.

I took an oval cutter and I marked it with a little marker.

And I'm going to slide this underneath this parchment paper here.

That's very clever.

So that I'm just going to.

Then you can slip it off and do the rest of them.

( chuckles ) First of all, you twist the top of your pastry bag to seal in the meringue, almost till it's tight.

So you don't have to push too much on it.

If it's tight enough, it pushes it out.

Yeah.

And then you have the little tray's mark... oval shape on it.

You start from the center, and you just ease the bag.

Let the right hand do the guiding.

Mm-hmm.

It's like a concentric circle but we have to keep it together.

You just need a flat base.

And right on top of the base I'm going to pipe little rosettes.

That's going to make it look like a little oval chocolate meringue cup.

Yeah.

You pipe your roses and then you let your right hand guide you as you do... Oh, you really made a real little rosette.

Yes.

We're going to finish the whole tray.

Once again, let the hand do the guiding and push with one hand.

Well, these should be baked right away.

Once again, yes.

And this takes about an hour to an hour and a half.

You could even leave it in the oven overnight at about 175-- between that and 200.

Just make sure that you know your oven is accurate.

That's it.

You don't want to cook meringues you just want to dry them out and it needs time and patience to do that.

Yeah, it does.

There, that looks fine.

That looks good, doesn't it?

And what's our next meringue, now?

I'm going to make a tropical fruit Napoleon using a plain meringue base.

Your meringue looks very different now.

Yeah.

This is the old one.

This is the older one which actually has four times more sugar.

Isn't that interesting?

Yes, just look at the contrast there.

This looks just like plain beaten egg whites.

The reason is we're going to mix in half a cup of sweetened coconut flakes and that has some sugar in it.

We really don't want it too sweet.

Well, I tasted some of this cooked coconut when it just came out of the supermarket.

But it has a fresh flavor.

It's very nice, very tasty.

Mm-hmm.

Now I'm going to spread this on a template that I made myself.

And anybody can make this at home.

What you do is you take a lid off of anything-- an ice cream tub any container that you can get with a plastic lid like that.

First of all, I marked a little circle with a pen.

And I trim it around the edge.

And that's going to make the little handle.

That's right.

And then if you have a little Exacto knife at home you could just make sure you cut around the marking that you've just made.

You won't have any black, won't you?

Exactly.

And then you can see that the little that I just cut out is going to come off easily and you're going to come up with this.

Come up with that-- that's great.

This is a floured and buttered sheet pan and it's important because the wafers will stick to it if you don't flour and butter it.

You just take a little bit of it spread it right on top of the little template just enough to spread in the hole and then you lift it off, and move on to the next You don't want to spread it too thick.

You can make them any shape you want.

Any shape, once again.

Like Christmas trees or diamonds or... Stars.

Just before baking, I'm going to sprinkle the rest of the coconut and the sesame seeds on the wafers.

That makes it look nicer and it gives it a more crispier taste.

Then sprinkle it with a generous amount of sesame seeds.

Again, it's a big pinch.

Yes.

( chuckles ) What's the oven at?

The oven is set at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

I'm going to put it in there and in about five minutes I'm going to check it.

So it doesn't take too long to bake.

And close it.

They look really done, don't they?

This looks ready, Julia.

Just pull it out and take it off of the tray.

Just pull it out and take it off of the tray.

Let's leave it on the oven door and I'm going to take them off one at a time and the trick is, Julia that when you're taking these off try to slide it underneath and then just scrape it off of it.

That's tricky, isn't it?

That is.

And let's do this one.

This comes off... That came off beautifully.

Okay.

Now we're going to do the caramel mousse.

Yes, Julia, and that's going to go over the chocolate meringue.

Great.

I have already measured out three-quarters of a cup of sugar so I'm going to put it in a heavy-bottomed pan.

The heat is high.

Yes, it's very high heat.

So we have to keep stirring it so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

Looks like it's starting to melt already.

So what I can do now is go measure out some gelatin and rum for the mousse.

And I'm going to measure out one teaspoon of gelatin.

This is plain, unflavored gelatin.

Unflavored gelatin.

I'm just going to sprinkle that over the water.

I'm just going to sprinkle that over the water.

It's a quarter of a cup, and it has to be very cold water.

And then I'll measure my two tablespoons of rum.

So I'll set that aside.

Lookit how this is... now this is definitely just beginning to turn.

It's just... yes, beginning to color.

So now I can turn down the heat a bit and then let it cook slowly.

Turn it down now.

Using this method you don't have any problems with crystallization, do you?

Not at all.

Just keep stirring and this will dissolve right into it.

Now I notice you got some caramelized pecans here.

Yes, this is a pecan praline and at this stage of caramel, I would put my nuts in it and cook it in there for about a minute or half a minute just to get the flavor from the caramel and to toast the nuts in it.

Mm-hmm.

And I'll pour it right back on an oiled tray.

Then you could chop this in a food processor and use it.

It has so many uses.

You use it as... On top of a mousse.

Oh, good.

And also, we have to watch this caramel.

We want to have it as dark as possible without burning because if you burn it you're going to get a bitter aftertaste from the caramel.

And then, also, if it's too light you don't have enough flavor.

Mm-hmm.

So... it looks like we're ready to go.

So I'm going to stop this cooking, turn it off completely and put some cold water in it to stop the cooking.

We have to...

Stand away.

step back a bit, yes.

Just take it off of the heat and let it sit here.

Stir it.

Looks like that's almost ready.

So don't stick your finger in it.

( chuckling ): No.

That's really terribly hot still.

You could easily burn yourself with caramel.

Mm-hmm.

So now this is ready, so we add the gelatin mix.

And then we go to the machine and beat up our egg yolks.

That's for the mousse For the mousse, yes.

We have all ready six egg yolks separated so we're going to put that in there and whip at a high speed until it's pale.

Now, I've turned off the machine and I am going to add my sugar caramel mix to the egg yolks.

And I have to add this gradually with the machine on slow speed.

And I am taking this off of the machine and it's ready to be mixed into the cream.

It has to be cold and nicely well incorporated.

and you can tell this still has a caramel color which is what we want.

And this is cream that is whipped now and I am just going to bring it up to soft peaks.

You don't want it to be too stiff when you mix it in because it will form lumps in it and then it might split when you are mixing it too vigorously.

I just take a half of the cream.

Mix it in there.

Mix it in the bowl.

Then, if we can pour that into the whipped cream we can see it better, couldn't we?

Okay, all at once?

All of it.

And then, I suppose... then the gelatin holds it together.

Holds it together.

It's not too stiff and it's not too soft.

And you just fold in the rest instead of mixing it in.

You just fold it in.

I'm going to have to taste it.

That's awfully good.

You can taste the...

The caramel isn't very pronounced but it's there.

And then, I think the rum is lovely with it.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with cream.

It needs to set in the refrigerator for an hour or more.

We can cover it and then put it in the refrigerator.

We're now going to make that Swiss meringue.

That's very useful because it's stabler.

And in this case we are going to use the meringue for a butter cream.

I have measured out four ounces of egg whites which is four large egg whites.

And then I am going to add a cup of sugar.

I'm going to cook this over the stove and then I'm just going to keep stirring this.

This cooking it makes it stable, doesn't it?

It's like cooking egg whites.

This is really a firm meringue and most of the time this is useful for the baked Alaskas and the lemon meringue pies.

And you can tell that it's starting to foam already.

That is what we want.

You want it too hot for your fingers?

Not too hot, but hot to the touch.

It's ready to be taken off, now... and hot.

Yes, this is really too hot for the finger.

If you keep it in there a long time.

Yeah.

So now I take it off.

And I'm going to continue the mixing with this hand-held mixer, here.

What are we aiming for?

You want a nice, stiff, glossy-looking meringue.

So I'm just going to keep this running until I get the required result.

We want firm peak.

We want nice, firm peaks.

Yeah, and it's still warm.

Still warm, yes so we need to go a bit longer.

You can't hurry it up.

No, you can't.

You just have to be patient with it.

Now, you could tell that it's firming up some more.

Because I am going to make a butter cream with it this is the right time for me to put it in.

It isn't making peaks.

Not the firm peaks that we want but we don't it to get too cold before we add the butter to it.

I see, yeah.

So, I'm going to run it.

How much butter we got there?

I have three sticks of butter that I am going to add.

Yes, I am going to keep the machine running on low speed and add gradually to it.

Three-quarters of a pound of soft, unsalted butter.

There's nothing quite like a real butter cream, is there?

You certainly wouldn't use the other spread in it.

At least, you wouldn't serve it to me if you did.

At this point, I'm going to turn it up a bit to make sure that all the lumps come out of it.

It looks lovely.

Thank you.

It smells good.

At this point, scrape in five ounces of melted, semi-sweet chocolate.

Best quality.

Yes, nice and dark.

And then we're just going to whisk this in.

It looks nice and velvety.

It thickens as you whip it.

Because the chocolate is... Cooling.

So, here we have our Swiss meringue chocolate butter cream.

Mmm... Good.

Well, this is the final assembly.

What are you going to start with?

Just as we started I'll do it in the same order.

We'll start with the cookies.

Plain meringue.

Yes, they're the plain meringues and the butter cream is all ready to go.

I'm going to spoon some of it into the bag.

And this is Swiss meringue butter.

And I'm going to take one and just pipe some on it.

Thank you.

I'll put it on, and then I'll put the other half right on top of it.

That makes a lovely little cookie.

That makes a lovely little cookie.

You said when you make these you cover them and keep them air-tight.

Yes, it gets chewy when you freeze it which is another way you can have it.

That would be lovely to serve if you were having a tea party or something.

Exactly... it's really light.

And very nice if you were having a fruit dessert, to have some of these.

Okay, so we're done with that.

There... now... And we'll put this on the side.

And then we'll go on to the chocolate meringue shell.

And I'm going to just sprinkle a bit of cocoa and powdered sugar on this to make it look nice.

I'm going to just do one side with cocoa powder.

Okay... then turn it around.

I'm going to do this other side with the powdered sugar.

Well, now, that's clever.

So, you have one side with cocoa and the other side with powdered sugar.

And then, if I can have a plate.

Thank you.

Now, I am going to spoon a little bit of the chopped pecan pralines and this is good on ice cream and everything.

You could use this as a topping for everything.

And this is caramel mousse, with the... rum in it.

Yes, I am just going to spoon some on top of it.

Now, that makes a lovely little dessert, doesn't it?

Yes, and then I am going to just sprinkle a little more pecan on it.

Now, I'm going to finish it with some fresh raspberries... Oh, that will be nice.

just to give it some color.

And, of course, raspberries go well with chocolate and caramel.

And I'm just going to put a sprig of mint on one corner of it.

Here we are.

Okay, well, that's lovely.

I'll put that aside.

Now we're going to move on to make the Napoleons, Julia.

That's what these beautiful cookies are.

Yes... exactly and we have all the fruits ready for it.

And we have some kiwi fruit.

We have some nice pink papayas.

And we have some mangos, some regular papayas, too.

And strawberries.

Yes, and strawberries.

And we have some diced, too, same thing, but diced.

And I am going to put one of these wafers on the bottom.

These are so delicate; you must be very careful.

So delicate, yes.

You have to be very careful with it.

This is whipped cream flavored with rum and a little powdered sugar.

Then all I do is spoon a little bit of it on top of the wafer.

I'm just going to arrange some of it.

And you could arrange it so some of the fruit will show on the outside of the wafer.

That's the mango.

Yes, and then we'll go with some pink papaya.

I'll go with some regular starfruit and some strawberries.

And as we always say when arranging things with our hands that they're impeccably clean.

Clean, exactly.

Has to be clean, yes.

And let me just spoon a little bit on it so that the wafer will hold on top of it.

Here... More cream... Have these fruits been sweetened or anything like that?

No, they're just regular, natural fruit... as they are.

But it has to be really, really ripe doesn't it?

It has to be nice and ripe and... starfruit.

A little bit more cream just to hold the wafer on top of it.

There's the topping.

And then, the rest of this I just sprinkle a little bit around the plate.

Okay, so here we are.

Then we can just finish it with a touch of powdered sugar just a touch.

And then just a little sprig of mint, again.

Mint just brings out the color in everything... fruits, desserts.

Here we are.

Well, that's perfectly beautiful.

Thank you; I'm glad I was able to share this with you.

Well, I'm... it's wonderful to know the versatility of the meringue.

Thanks, yes.

It's very useful so don't throw away those egg whites.

No!

Thank you very, very much.

Thank you, Julia, it's an honor.

Julia's got the tastiest site on the Web Julia: Bon appétit!