I've made SMBC several times and absolutely love it, but one thing I don't like is waiting for my meringue to cool to room temp before adding the butter. Most recipes for SMBC state to beat the egg white/sugar mixture till stiff peaks form and is at room temp, but for some unknown reason, my egg white/sugar mix NEVER cools down!!!

I've had it in the mixer for nearly an hour without the temperature going down, it is driving me bonkers! I normally give up after about half an hour and stop the mixer while putting ice packs around the mixer to cool it down enough for me to go to the next step of the recipe.

My husband reckons it's something to do with the friction (insert scientific-y explanation here), but whatever it is is extremely frustrating and I basically want to know from all the SMBC experts out there: can I cool down the egg white/sugar mix BEFORE I start beating it?? ...actually, it's just now occurring to me that it'll probably just heat back up when beating if its from some sorta scientific friction thing... HELP! Love SMBC but sick of it taking me nearly 2 hours to make!!

I`ve never heard of this happening. Are you using a stand mixer? If you touch the meringue, not the bowl is it warm?? The bowl may always feel slightly warm, once you start adding butter it will start to get cold. I beat the meringue for 10 min. then start adding very cold butter to the meringue, you can move onto room temp butter to finish off the SMBC. If my SMBC is too soupy while I'm adding butter I fill a shallow pie dish with ice and water and push it up against the base of the bowl and continue to mix. Good Luck!

AMixing it while hot incorporates air, which should aid in cooling. I've never had the meringue stay too warm for more than about 15 minutes. Ice packs are certainly OK to use, if you need to. In the summer, I use cold packs too.

ASometimes when I do it the mixing bowl always feels warm...if you're testing it that way let it mix for about 20 minutes. After that it really should be good

Could you be heating it too long?  I heat it over a double boiler until the sugar is dissolved at which time I take it off and start beating it.  By the time it is ready for the butter it has cooled to room temp.

Thanks for the advice! I do use a KA stand mixer, and the bowl is always quite hot to the touch, but the egg/sugar mix is definitely cooler than the bowl - although it never seems to get down to room temperature. I made some caramel bc this afternoon, once I had my nice thick glossy meringue I put it onto the lowest setting and left it for about 15 minutes (I was hoping that being on the lowest setting would allow it to cool easier while preventing the meringue from starting to crust - I was sorta winging it lol!), when I came back it was still warm but I was impatient and added the butter anyway - and ended up with caramel soup. Ugh. I finally fixed it after putting it back in the fridge, and adding a few extra cubes of butter.

One of the last times I made SMBC I stopped the mixer altogether and just let the meringue sit for about 10 minutes, after which it was finally at room temp - yay! - BUT it had started crusting over...we ate it anyway haha :D

I actually came across a blog ages ago where someone was having the same problem and solved it in the end by packing the bowl with ice packs every time she made SMBC. Maybe I'm just going to have to do the same thing...or stop the mixer but stir every couple of minutes to stop it from crusting. Argh, I find this so aggravating but it is now 11:30pm and I desperately need some sleep! Thanks again for all the advice, but I still have no idea LOL!

curious problem that you have --i transfer my cooked egg & sugar mixture to my mixer bowl--this helps to stop the cooking too--

so you are beating yours in the same bowl you cook it in?

and once in while--very rarely but it does happen-- i have to put the mixer bowl in the fridge to take off the heat for maybe 10 mins--but often i play with the temperatures too--i use the butter cold enough to take the minimal heat of the egg whites down--then i use the warmer butter to finish the batch--

random thoughts about it

oh one more--definitely beat your egg whites right after cooking--hot eggs beat up better---then fridge that if need be--if you leave the beater in the egg whites it helps cool it off from the inside too--

but maybe consider pouring your meringue out into another bowl--takes a big whoosh of heat off right away--