[food] In which I make vegan meringue

[kaberett]

I absolutely cannot remember, at this point, how I came across this or why I decided to try it, but two days ago I had a meal containing chickpeas and saved the liquid and yesterday I had a stab at vegan meringue. Herein notes thereupon.

A bowl of thick, white, glossy proto-meringue, holding stiff peaks -- just.

Three small meringues ready to go into the oven.

Three cooked meringues.

Ingredients
liquid drained from one 400g tin of chickpeas or white beans (aquafaba)
125g sugar

Notes
This is taken fairly directly from a recipe elsenet. You preheat your oven to 110°C; in a clean, dry bowl, you whisk the chickpea liquid until it's white(r), frothy, and increased in volume (about five minutes); and then you add the sugar a tablespoon at a time, whisking as you go along, until it eventually holds peaks, per the first image.

Spoon out onto lined baking sheets (this actually made 10 meringue of the pictured size, I just didn't take any half-arsed photos of the first tray) and cook for 90 minutes, then turn off the oven & leave to cool.

The recipe I was cribbing from suggested adding half a teaspoon of cream of tartar to the aquafaba before beginning to add the sugar; various others recommend adding a similar quantity of cornflour, and a small quantity of lemon juice or vinegar at the end, all of which presumably act to stabilise the meringue in much the same way as if one is using eggs. I didn't use any of those -- we didn't have cream of tartar in the house, and I don't use them when making egg-based meringue and didn't want to confuse the comparison. As the second & third photos show, in the absence of stabilisers the meringue spread quite a lot rather than holding their shape -- I assume the photos various of meringues that do display more structural integrity did use stabilisers of some description.

There's a brown/nutty/caramel-y/chocolate-y flavour note to these when eaten plain that egg-based meringue don't have; opinions on the internet seem to vary a lot as to how much the type of bean liquid you use affects this, and it can presumably be masked (should you dislike it) by adding flavourings misc, which I also didn't do.

Now I've got a feel for how this works I have an Exciting New Method with which to make e.g. macarons if I am not (... unlikely as the this is) in the mood for custard. I have also scored another point in my ongoing pointless contest of culinary one-upmanship against myself, and therefore am delighted; Facebook found the recipe useful so you lot get it too.

Comments

[redsixwing]

you can what with bean juice!?

I need to try this! Thank you!

[kaberett]

A small group of someones worked it out about a year ago! It's sort of exciting in ~~molecular gastronomy~~ terms, not least because it's a sufficiently weird niche thing that nobody's yet done the science on why the hell it works :D

[redsixwing]

That's so cool! Thanks for the link. :D

[kaberett]

Welcome!

[ironed_orchid]

That is so exciting.

[fyreharper]

I think scummy-slimy bean-liquid is pretty gross so I think I may need to make this... Just for a reality check, right? XD

Curious whether I should be looking for unsalted chickpeas or whether regular salted ones are fine for meringue...what did you use?

[kaberett]

So the ones I used are just sold canned with liquid, no added salt (a small quantity of antioxidant but that's it). I've... never to my knowledge come across chickpeas being sold in brine-qua-brine in the UK, so I'm afraid I am very little help here! Other than, you know, "what even is the US".

[fyreharper]

I shall have to check labels again, then! I know the OTHER beanforms have salt... Probably not brine as such but if one is lucky they have ONLY salt instead of list-of-weirdthings.

(I don't know what even is up with the US either. But there I am anyway >_> brief escape coming up soon though!)

[ghoti]

I know I shared this with a few folks who have (whose kids have) egg allergies. I may have added you because of veg*n alternative while you were meringue because leftover from custard experiments?

[kaberett]

I don't thiiiiiiiink you did? In that I think I tend to remember when I have acquired a thing because feesh <3

But in any case, at least one friend with a kid with egg allergies has been absolutely delighted by this showing up in their ambit, so thank you anyway :-)

[ironed_orchid]

I need to try this.