I had to take a break from my croissants while I did some more research on them, so I decided to try my hand at different buttercreams. I’ve seen all of my favorite bakers on YouTube using one of two frostings, both of which are meringue-based. One is Italian Meringue Buttercream, which involves pouring hot sugar into meringue while the mixer is running, then add the butter and whip until everything comes together. Then there’s Swiss Meringue Buttercream, where you start the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler then whip it up in the mixer, add the butter, and mix until everything comes together. I’ll go into more detail on both of these later in the post. I’ve been wanting to try making Italian Meringue Buttercream for a while, but I was scared that I’d burn myself with the hot sugar. I’ve heard it called culinary napalm; that does not sound fun. I made it and didn’t burn myself at all (thankfully) but then I’ve also heard about Swiss Meringue Buttercream so I decided to make a batch of that as well to compare which one is better and if one is more complicated than the other. Now onto the recipes!
The links for the recipes I used are below if you want to give them a try for yourself.
Italian Meringue Buttercream – How To Cake It
Swiss Meringue Buttercream – The Scran Line
Italian Meringue Buttercream.
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 8 egg whites, at room temperature
- 2 cups (4 sticks) butter, cut into tablespoon pieces and then brought to room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
In a small pot, combine the sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot to monitor the temperature of the sugar.
While the sugar is coming to a boil, separatethe egg whites and put them into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (as always, you can use a hand mixer. It’ll just take a little longer.)
Once the sugar reaches 230 degrees F on a candy thermometer, start whipping the egg whites on medium/high speed until stiff peaks form. Then once the sugar reads 240 degrees, immediately take the pan off the heat and gently pour the hot sugar in a thin stream (making sure to pour the sugar in between the side of the bowl and the whisk) into the meringue with the mixer running on medium speed. Be careful not to hit the whisk while pouring the sugar into the meringue or else it’ll hit the side of the bowl and crystalize not get evenly mixed in with the meringue.
Whip the meringue and sugar on high speed until it’s thick and glossy and the bowl isn’t warm to the touch anymore. This step takes anywhere between 8 – 12 minutes, mine took 10 minutes until it was cool enough for the next step. This is a very crucial step because if you add the butter to the meringue while its hot, the butter will melt right away and then the buttercream won’t set up properly. Don’t skip this step.
Once the bowl isn’t warm to the touch anymore, start adding the butter one piece at a time with the mixer on medium speed no higher. I learned this the hard way because I turned mine up to high and started adding the butter which resulted in meringue being splattered on the floor and my countertop so I turned it back to medium speed. Lesson learned. Wait until there’s no more butter showing before you add the next piece, I like to count to 20 in my head before adding the next one just to be sure that each piece incorporated evenly. Don’t worry if you see the meringue starting to separate or look like its deflated. This is normal and is supposed to happen, it’ll all work out in the end.
Once all the butter has been added, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl to catch any butter or meringue that sank to the bottom of the bowl. Then add the vanilla and whip on high speed until its thick and smooth about 3- 5 minutes.
This one is delicious and not too sweet! So if you prefer a frosting that doesn’t taste too sweet and doesn’t have a lot of sugar then this is a great frosting for you. Once I got over my fear of pouring the hot sugar into the mixer while it was running, this was a fun recipe to make.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
This one isn’t as involved as the Italian Meringue Buttercream but it’s just as delicious. The recipe that I used for this one goes by weight not volume so if you have a kitchen scale like I do, now is the time to use it. If not then I’ve also included measurements for each ingredient.
Ingredients:
- 200g egg whites (6 egg whites)
- 200g sugar (1 cup)
- 500g butter (4 sticks or 1 lb plus 4 tbsp)
- 1 tsp vanilla
Start by filling a small pot with about a 1/4 inch of water and bring it to just below a boil. Then in a large clean glass or metal bowl, add the egg whites and the sugar. You can save the yolks for later and do something else with them. I prefer to make cremebruléewith egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites and sugar together until combined, then place the bowl over the pot of water making sure that the bowl doesn’t touch the water in the pot or else you’ll end up with scrambled eggs, which don’t make good buttercream or meringue at all. Continue whisking constantly for 3- 4 minutes until the sugar has completely dissolved into the egg whites.
Once all the sugar has been dissolved into the egg whites and they’ve gotten to a foamy stage, transfer the egg whites to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (you can use a hand mixer if you want to, it’ll just take a little longer and give you your arm workout for the day.) Whisk the egg whites on high until thick and glossy, also known as the medium peaks stage, which can take anywhere between 3 -5 minutes. The meringue will begin to cool as it whips in the mixer.
After the meringue has formed medium peaks, start adding the butter 1 tbsp at a time (I like to count to 20 in my head before adding the next piece just to be sure) with the mixer running on medium high speed. Don’t worry if it looks like the meringue is separating from the butter, that is normal. It’ll take a couple minutes for everything to come together nicely and form the buttercream that you’re looking for.
After all of the butter has been added, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl to be sure that if anything is stuck to the bottom it gets evenly incorporated with the rest of the mixture. Add in the vanilla then mix on high for another 5 minutes. You’ll know your frosting is ready when it’s smooth, pale in color, and is nice and fluffy.
While both of these buttercreams are delicious and have a meringue base, there are still two questions. Which one tastes better? And is one easier to make than the other? In my opinion they both taste amazing, not too sweet and not too heavy like an American buttercream is. Don’t get me wrong, American buttercream tastes good and is easy to make, but all the powdered sugar that’s used makes it so sweet and kind of heavy in texture, where as Italian and Swiss meringue buttercreams are sweet, but not too sweet and they aren’t too heavy texture-wise. Both buttercreams pipe beautifully and they look amazing piped in a signature cupcake swirl or just piped in general because they hold their shape so much nicer. As for the question of which one is easier to make? Swiss Meringue is a lot easier to make, since it’s not as involved as Italian meringue. So if you want a quick delicious frosting, then Swiss meringue is the buttercream that you’ll want to make. After trying both recipes, I realized that I had more fun making the Italian meringue, after getting over the fear of getting hot sugar everywhere. I did like the Swiss meringue, but I personally will be making the Italian buttercream a lot more than my usual American buttercream recipe. The only difference between the two is that Italian meringue is a whipped meringue that has hot sugar poured into it while the mixer is running and Swiss meringue is started out on a double boiler then finished in the mixer. Technique and timing are essential in making both of them.
Until next time,
Peace, Love, and Sugar,
Brooke
