Hello,

I am a newbie to this forum. I already love it!! Last weekend I made Italian Buttercream and it was wonderful. I decided to make another batch this weekend, but it had a slightly grainy texture. I don't know that anyone would even notice. I was wondering if I need to pitch this batch or can it be fixed by heating it and remixing it? Anybody know what caused the grainy texture? Did I boil my sugar and water to long?

I used the recipe where you boil water and sugar then add to your whipped egg whites.

Thanks

Courtney

You may have overbeaten the egg whites, They should be stiff peaks, but not dry. Or you may have cooked the sugar syrup too long. I don't thnk I would throw it out, but you might add some fruit filling or melted chocolate and use it as a filling rather than for icing the cake.

Wellcome to the CC addiction!!!

I make IMBC all the time but never had a grainy problem.
If you think it might be the sugar.. Are you using a candy thermometer for it. A good quality thermometer is needed for sure, HTH

Jovigirl

Another trick with the IMBC that will eliminate sugar crystals causing graininess (which you can't get rid of, if that's what caused it), is this:

Cook the sugar syrup, but before pouring it into the egg whites, pour it out of the pan through a FINE mesh sieve into a large glass measuring cup. Then use THAT to pour it into the egg whites. Since I started doing that and catching all the sugar crystals in the seive, I've never had grainy IMBC.

hth

I had that problem once too and thought no one would notice and used it but you can tell the difference, it's just slightly crunchy and it's very difficult to pipe, let me rephrase, impossible to pipe because the crystals clog the tips. Your recipe should probably say to use a pastry brush and dip it in water and then run that along the sides of the pan as the sugar cooks, it's helps prevent the crystals from forming. I've also heard of putting a lid on the pan, the steam that forms inside the pans runs down the sides in the same manner as using the pastry brush would but the easiest solution is to just run it through the sieve.