As you may also have done, I’ve read recipes and posts about replacing eggs with Chick Pea water and thought.. really?
I don’t often have occasion to make a meringue, but as it was New Years Day, and the
official start to ‘Veganuary’ I thought I’d give it a go..
What can I say except that it’s one of the most surprising ‘Free-From’ recipes I’ve tried to date.
The recipe I used stated ‘whip the chick pea water until white and forming stiff peaks’ (as you would with egg whites..) ‘then after you pick yourself up from the floor, gradually add in the sugar’! It really was one of this jaw dropping moments!
So here’s the recipe, great for Vegan diets or people allergic/intolerant to eggs. And very easy indeed.
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp Chick Pea water from a can; aquafaba which literally means bean water!
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract. I didn’t actually use this as I’d run out, and it was absolutely fine without it.
Method:
Put the water and cream of tartar into the bowl of an electric mixer. If you don’t have one you could use an electric hand mixer as I did, or, if you have the biceps you could try a balloon whisk but this WILL take a LONG time... Having said that you’d have burned the calories to warrant eating the whole meringue afterwards!
Start whisking on a slow speed until foam develops on top of the water.
Gradually increase the speed to full, and white stiff peaks start to form. (Yes really!!) Don’t give up too soon, it does take a bit longer than egg whites do.
Preheat oven to 120c
Line a baking tray or two depending on the size with baking parchment.
If you are making a Pavolva you can spoon or pipe the meringue into 2 large discs with a slight ‘well’ in them. Or, if you’re making small meringue ‘drops’ it’s really much easier to pipe them... as I discovered!!
Place into the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes, then turn off the oven and allow the meringue to sit there for another 60 minutes.
These will keep in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week... but it won’t last that long, trust me!
I made mine into a Pavolva using whipped coconut milk and fruit, nobody Would ever have known I hadn’t used eggs, let alone used the murky brown liquid from a can of chick peas!
Notes:
Interestingly you can use the water from other tinned beans (I don’t recommend you try Heinz Baked Beans!) and some people report preferring Butter Bean juice.
If you boil your own beans from scratch, you can use your own home made aquafaba, but it’s more difficult to judge the viscpsittacosis needed. I recommend you try the canned version first to see what it should look like.
