Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Swiss Meringue Buttercream is one of my favorite frostings. It is much lighter and less sugary than American Buttercream. Although it tastes amazing, many people are intimidated to make it because you have to cook the egg whites and sugar together over a double broiler. I assure you, out of the many incarnations that meringue can take, this is among the easiest of recipes.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart, which I have been using for more than 10 years. What is great about the internet is that you can see reviews of recipes and whether or not it is worth your time. This recipe of hers does not have the best of ratings, but I seem to think that people may not know how to adjust properly for their standards.

Swiss meringue buttercream should be light, easy to spread, hold its shape when piped or spread and not too sweet. I believe that people have issues with the amount of butter in her original recipe, so I adapted it so that it has a balance of flavors and tastes parfait.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from Martha Stewart

To view original recipe, click here.

Ingredients

5 large egg whites

1 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 cup + 2 tablespoons of sugar

3 sticks of unsalted butter or 12 ounces

Kosher Salt - pinch

How to make Buttercream

Prepare a double boiler by heating water in a pot on the stove so that it is at a simmer, do not overfill pot, it should be about halfway full. Do not get any water or fat (butter oil) into the bowl with the egg white mixture, this could cause the egg whites to not whip properly. Get a heatproof bowl (I just use my kitchen aid stainless steel bowl), combine sugar, salt and egg whites. Continuously mix with a hand whisk over pot of simmering water until sugar dissolves (3-5 minutes). In order to see if sugar has dissolved, I take a clean finger and wipe to the bottom of the bowl. There should be no graininess, only a glossy and warm mixture.

Stand mixer (or hand mixer) should be fitted with the whisk attachment. Place bowl into mixer and start on low speed and increase every 30 seconds or so. My mixer is getting old so I have to get to the highest speed, 10, in order to incorporate enough air. It should take about 5 minutes to have a nice meringue. How do you know that it is done? The bowl should feel cool and when you take the whisk and scrape some meringue from the bowl, it will hold a stiff shape.

Now its time to incorporate the butter. Your butter should be room temperature. I usually only use organic butter, and I love french butter the best. It has a high fat content and I find it has a nice taste. Also, Kerrygold is a very good brand too. If you have glanced over the original recipe, you will have seen that I reduced the recipe by 1 stick of butter or 4 ounces. Cut the butter up into small tablespoon slices. Switch the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment on your stand mixer. Turn mixer on med/low speed, add butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Make sure to scrape down bowl every once and awhile. Friends, don’t freak out if the buttercream separates! It will come back together, promise! If the buttercream has separated, turn up the mixer a level or two and let it mix until it looks like whipped cream. It should be smooth, slightly glossy and have a cohesive texture. You can add the vanilla at this point and just mix until combined.

This will keep in the fridge for a couple of days (make sure its in a closed container so it doesn’t absorb other smells from the fridge). Let it come to room temperature before whipping again with your paddle attachment for a couple of minutes.

This swiss meringue buttercream is the base for so many flavors, just be creative. Here is a list of the flavors I’ve made with this buttercream.

Vanilla Bean

Chocolate

Salted Caramel

Orange

Lemon

Peanut Butter

Espresso

Strawberry

What is your favorite type of frosting? Let me know in the comments below!