Aquafaba water allows vegan bakers to make crispy meringues without eggs. Aquafaba is the briny discard water found in cans of chickpeas (garbanzo beans). But it can also come from the cooked discard water of other dried beans (pulses). Chickpeas are preferred because they have a milder flavor than other beans.
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| Vanilla aquafaba meringues, baked by Inika Foods Llc., Delray Beach, Fla. Copyright 2018 by Helen A Lockey |
The protein properties of the pulses lend themselves to complex dessert styles that usually use egg whites. As they can be whipped, with a bit of cream of tarter, into something that looks like soft peaked whisked egg whites.
To make handheld meringues you just need to add organic granulated sugar and vanilla before baking, and resting the finished meringues in the unopened over for one hour. And voila, you have a crispy, airy, gooey in the center (if you are lucky) vanilla vegan meringue.
If the canned aquafaba water is too salty, you can always cook up some presoaked (soaked overnight and then cooked in a fresh volume of water) chickpeas and use that discard water in your recipes.
The generally accepted portion rule is that 3 Tablespoons of aquafaba equals one egg white.
There are many recipes on the Internet. All of the vanilla meringues have just the four ingredients above. Where the recipes differ is the temperature of the oven and the baking time. Some say use a 200F (100C) oven for two hours (www.thelazyveganbaker.com) while others say use a 250F (121C) over for 45 minutes (www.lovingitvegan.com) .
Vegan meringues have to be treated exactly like egg meringues in hot humid climates. If they are left out of their airtight container for too long they will become sticky.
And if you decide all of this is just too hard to make, then check out the vegan meringues at Inika Foods Llc., in Delray Beach, Florida. Their meringues are airy, crispy and gooey in the middle.
