Buttercream

By polloazul

Swiss meringue purists may get a little stressed to see me using a little less sugar in this recipe, but I’ve done it like this for the last five years and so far, so good.

Ingredients

• 10 oz egg whites (it’s okay to go a little over)
• 10 oz sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean
• 2 pounds unsalted butter, cut into 2” chunks, room temperature

Details

Servings 10
Adapted from bravetart.com

Preparation

Step 1

Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean together in an clean bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of water and turn the heat on medium low. You don’t need the water to even simmer, you just want it hot enough to steam, since steam is what’s actually going to heat the whites.

Whisk frequently to prevent an egg white omelet forming on the sides, but continual mixing isn’t necessary. Aim to get the mixture to at least a 145° for food safety reasons, but reaching 150° would make for a nice margin of error. If your egg whites are at room temperature, this won’t take very long, maybe just a few minutes. Whites straight from the fridge will take longer.

When the mixture is sufficiently hot, remove from the heat and whip on medium high speed until the mixture is cool. It will double in volume and turn snowy white.

Turn the mixer down to medium-low and begin adding in the butter, one chunk at a time. If you didn’t let your meringue cool enough, this is when you’ll really regret it. By the time you’ve added all the butter, you may need to scrape down the bowl to fully incorporate any butter or meringue that’s stuck at the sides.

Finally, splash in some vanilla extract or what have you. Just keep adding a splash at a time until it suits your tastes.