Above: The meringues are ready to bake.
RECIPE EXPERIMENTS: Aquafaba MeringuesRecently KQ host
Mitch Hightower decided to see if
aquafaba can really be whipped to make
meringues. In case you don't know, aquafaba is the
brine from beans, also known as "bean water". In this recipe, Mitch used aquafaba from
chickpeas, (aka garbanzo beans).
Mitch reports that the
aquafaba did indeed whip up beautifully into stiff peaks very similar to egg whites. Never satisfied with anything plain, Mitch dressed up the meringues by painting
gel food coloring inside the piping bag to obtain a
stripe effect. So far, so good.
After baking, the meringues were light and very crispy, like what you would expect if eggs had been used. Unfortunately, once the meringues cooled to room temperature, they became sticky and lost their shape. The aqaufaba meringues went from nearly perfect to an epic fail in no time.
Mitch says, "Clearly I have some work to do to get this recipe right. I may consider baking them longer next time".
Below: The aquafaba from a can of chickpeas.
Above: The aquafaba whipped to
stiff peaks.
