Recipe: Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC)
100% reliable and used by Bakehouse Cakes in many of its artistic creations.
Italian Meringue Buttercream -IMBC- it´s much more stable than Swiss Meringue Buttercream, you have less risk of spoiling it and it´s easier to fix if for any reason that happens.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 Cups of granulated white sugar (450 grs)
1/2 Cup of water (125 grs)
1 cup egg whites (240grs)
6 1/2 sticks of butter (750 grs-room temperature)
STEPS
- Put the sugar and water inside a pan and mix it a little with a spoon to make sure there are no lumps.
2. Set a timer for 7 minutes. Turn on your stove to medium temperature and put the mixture of sugar and water to heat. Start the timer. Meanwhile place the egg whites on the bowl of your standmixer and cut the butter into small squares. During this whole process you will see how the mixture (now called syrup) will start to slowly simmer and little bubbles will start to appear. When the syrup is almost done, you will see that it bubbles slowly but it is still transparent.
3. When there are 2 minutes left in your timer, start beating the egg whites at high speed until the timer beeps. As soon as this happens, very carefully start pouring the syrup into the egg whites, still beating on high speed. This is called an Italian Meringue -it has a bright white color and makes stiff peaks. At this stage you could use it to decorate a key lime pie! (But you still need to beat a little longer though).
4. Keep beating your meringue at high speed until you can touch the bowl and feel it warm. If it´s not ready, the bowl will burn your hands.
5. With the standmixer´s speed still on high, start adding the butter slowly. Add a couple of cubes and wait until you can´t see them anymore on top of the buttercream. Keep adding small batches of butter cubes until there are no more to add.
It is not likely that on this stage the buttercream will become grainy, but if this happens it could be that you are adding the butter too fast: don´t worry and keep beating it until it´s smooth again or read the tips below on how to regenerate it after it´s been refrigerated.
6. Add vanilla extract and desired flavor and your buttercream is ready to use!
FLAVORS
You can flavor it any way you like!! Just take into account that depending on the flavor your buttercream can become softer than it usually is. You can use jams, extracts, chocolate, coffee, caramel, etc.
If adding melted chocolate, add it when the italian meringue is still hot, otherwise you´ll end up with lumps in your buttercream because of the difference in the tempreatures of the melted hot chocolate and the cold buttercream.
USES
To fill and frost cupcakes
As cake fillings.
For crumb coating
To frost entire cakes
TIPS
IMBC will never be a pure white because of the butter (that it´s yellow).
IMBC can be kept in the fridge for weeks or it can be frozen.
When you refrigerate IMBC it will become grainy when it comes back to room temperature. Don´t be scared. Simply heat some water in a skillet and place the buttercream inside the bowl of your mixer and inside the skillet. When aproximately a third of your buttercream is melted, place it on your standmixer and beat it at high speed until it becomes smooth and silky again. You can refrigerate again what´s left and regenerate it as many times as you like.
Don´t melt all the buttercream. If this happens it won´t be the same again. Start by melting 1/4 and see if you can beat it back to normal. If not, heat it a little bit more.
IMBC can be kept in the fridge for weeks or it can be frozen.
When coloring IMBC keep in mind that no matter how much color you add it won´t give you a strong color. It will always be pastel. If you need strong colors, for example a cookie monster blue, you´ll need to use the margarine (or crisco) and powdered sugar recipe.
I usually have basic vanilla IMBC on a closed container in my fridge, and flavor small amounts when I need it.
I hope you like this recipe, please let me know how you did with it!
