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You need to prepare yourself for a situation where you do not find meringue powder in your kitchen! In such a case, you must have enough idea about using substitutes that can do your job, so you do not need to head towards the market in search of powder. Let us check for two popular recipes;
Substitute for Meringue Powder in Buttercream
To make delicious cookies, cake, or cupcakes, you cannot avoid using buttercream frosting for decorating them. Meringue powder will help the buttercream stay longer in hot weather and make it crustier and stiffer. Here are the options if you will lack meringue powder in your kitchen;
a) Aquafaba
It looks similar to meringue but doesn’t include egg whites. So, aquafaba is made from chickpea water. It tastes different due to having a distinct lovely flavor.
b) Egg Whites
If you want a natural substitute for meringue powder, you should go with egg whites to deliver fantastic taste. But you have to be prepared enough to be work hard in preparing buttercream since egg whites need more whipe time.
c) Agar-Agar
It is a gelatin substitute formed by seaweed and used to prepare the alternative of meringue. You can chill and whip it till it forms stiff peaks that can further be folded into sugar and creamed butter.
d) Egg White Powder
We cannot related meringue powder with egg white powder because they are made of different ingredients. This powder contains only hydrated egg whites other than cornstarch and sugar used to make meringue powder. So if required, you need also to add sugar with egg white powder.
Substitute for Meringue Powder in Frosting
Lemon juice (or tartar cream for stability) with pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar can make a mix for preparing royal ice or frosting. It will deliver the right texture and taste required for frosting.
You can also replace egg white with egg white powder that can be mixed with water to become equivalent to the required egg whites. Further, food colors can be added to this and achieve more beauty as desired.
What is Meringue Powder?
If you love baking, then you might already know about meringue powder. It is prepared by drying the raw egg whites and used mainly to make royal icing, buttercreams, and frosting.
So the powder is a good substitute for egg. You only need two teaspoons of meringue powder with two teaspoons of water to replace one egg white of considerable size. But it is suggested not to use this powder instead of eggs in making bread, cookies, or brownies.
Meringue powder also works well to prevent the frostings from drooping. So it stabilizes the recipes that are kept at room temperature for long hours and are prepared with whipped cream.
The most common use of this powder is in preparing royal icing to decorate cookies and piping flowers. You can add the powder in cooking icing, marshmallow icing, whipped, and snow-white buttercream frostings. It has to be mixed with powdered sugar and water to make a paste that can be poured over the treats.
