Swiss Meringue Buttercream
This buttercream is made from a Swiss Meringue, where the egg whites and sugar are heated in a double boiler until the sugar totally dissolves into the egg whites. It is then whipped to a stiff meringue and combined with whipped butter.
It is an extremely stable buttercream which holds up even in warm temperatures. It was the buttercream of choice for wedding cakes in my Martha’s Vineyard pastry shop, which seemed to always be hot, even at night when we decorated the wedding cakes.
With egg whites as the base, the buttercream has a fairly neutral taste allowing for even subtle flavorings to come through.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
| Yield: 1 qt. | # of Servings: 12 |
Ingredients
1 cup (8 oz / 227 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (4 fl oz) egg whites
1 cup + 2 tbl (8 oz / 227 g) sugar
Special tools and equipment needed:
- Handheld or countertop mixer with whip attachment
- Small sauce pan
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Start double boiler – bring 2 inches of water to the simmer in small sauce pan
Directions:
- Beat butter until light and fluffy. Set aside.
- In clean machine bowl, using a heat-proof spoon or spatula combine egg whites and sugar over the double boiler.
- Continually stir egg whites until hot enough that you don’t feel any sugar granules between your fingers dipped into the whites, about 140 °F.
- Once sugar has dissolved into the whites, remove from heat, place on mixer with wire whip, and whip on medium-high speed until a thick meringue, and just to the warm side of room temperature. Let sit for approximately 15 minutes.
- On low speed with the wire whip, add the butter to the meringue and mix until well blended.
- Flavor as desired.
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream may be stored in refrigerator for 5 days or the freezer for 3 weeks. Let come to room temperature, put in machine bowl and whip on low speed until smooth.
Baking tips:
- The buttercream is fairly firm, but will smooth out as flavorings are added.
