Why Does My Italian And Swiss Buttercream Melt Too Fast?
Baking By bakemycake52 Updated 2 Nov 2016 , 7:09am by julia1812
So when I make Italian or Swiss buttercream...it seems like I'm doing everything right. I also started using half buttercream and half shortening but the buttercream at the end looks good but not stiff enough. I put it in the fridge overnight and whip again, it looks great but then melts really fast and becomes too soft. What can I be doing wrong??
I was thinking maybe I need to use a different brand of butter?
are your fats melting in meringue that's too hot maybe?
did you let your cold icing come to 'room temp' before rebeating?
And are you positive that all egg white has been incorporated into the meringue? scraped the bowl -- start whipping on low and gradually increase the speed -- make sure your paddle or whip is at the right height/depth in the mixer bowl --
some other meringue thought for you
Ya thank you!!
I think I scrap all the meringue but I'll pay attention to that next time. If I cook my sugar too much or not enough...What is the results of that?
Are you in a super warm humid climate? If your butter can't handle your temperature your Swiss Meringue will not either. Cooking the sugar accomplishes a number of things, it homogenizes the eggs which is important for safety - so make sure you're getting it to 160 degrees F; it melts the sugar so it has a nice smooth mouth feel, and it evaporates some of the water in the eggs. So if you don't cook it enough you might be missing one of these things.
I always use a candy thermometer to make sure my sugar syrup is the right temperature. I sounds to me something like your sugar syrup may not be hot enough when you whip it up
duff does not even cook his egg whites so idk...
temperature of meringue to butter is important so you don't melt the butter -- and that every morsel gets incorporated is important so no errant egg white is loose in the mixture but the actually cooking of the meringue is not necessarily the culprit in every case --
i would def use a thermometer for italian --
what do you mean by "I also started using half buttercream and half shortening"
it's hard to diagnose both kinds at the same time so if you want to separate the swiss from the italian and be specific with your questions maybe we can get to the bottom of this with you
Without watching you during the process it's kind of hard to say what's happening, but I will say that I had my mother in law make SMB for me twice, and both times they came out soupy/not firm. Here's what I noticed she did differently.
1) In general, you want to melt your sugar into the egg white over a double boiler. Some people bring it to a certain temperature but I find about 5 minutes over low-medium heat gets me to the point where there are no longer any sugar crystals in the mixture (I test by scraping my spatula on the bottom and sides of the pan). My MIL kept the double boiler on longer than she should have, which in theory doesn't have any effect except making the mixture hotter, and it will take longer to get to room temp once your transfer to your mixer.
2) Taking my egg white/sugar mixture in the mixing bowl, it takes about 10 minutes for the bottom of the bowl to come back to room temperature. If that mixing bowl is really hot to begin with, then it will take longer. Regardless, the minimum time I let my mixer do it's job at this point is 10 minutes, longer if the bowl was really hot. If you do less than 10 minutes your meringue won't be firm enough .
3) the butter needs to be cold but not too soft. I take mine out of the fridge (usually 2lbs at a time) and microwave it for about 45 seconds. It's to the point where I can apply pressure to the bar and it feels just a little softer. I quickly incorporate all of that butter into the mixing bowl with a paddle attachment. It then takes about 5 minutes to get to the right consistency.
On the off chance that your recipe has odd measurements, here's the one that I've been using for about 5 years on all of my cakes. A 6qt mixer can handle 3x recipes.
Ingredients
- 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 6 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In double boiler over simmering water, whisk sugar and egg whites until warm and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to clean bowl of electric mixer; beat on high with whisk attachment until fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes.
- Switch to paddle attachment ; add butter a scant 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.
- Beat on medium-lowest speed (3-4 on kitcheaid) 3 to 5 minutes. Leave at room temperature if using same day.
- Mix any flavors once the SMB is completely setup. You can fold in the flavors if needed.
Hope that helps,
Frank
If you are making Swiss meringue it's really important to beat the egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks, as in stand up straight with no flopping over. The other thing is that you're using actual butter and not margarine. The shortening should be fine but margarine has too much water content.
You just need a thermometer. If it's too cold (less than about 70F), it breaks (separates), if it's too hot, it's melty.
I don't think the quality of the meringue, the starting temp of the butter, or the way you add the butter matters. I add cold butter to hot meringue, for instance.
You can chill it, but if you mess with it before it warms up it will break. It will come back together though once it's room temp. You can use a heat gun against the bowl.
Thanks for all your replies!
I tried duffs recipe (10 eggs, 15 oz sugar, 2.5 pounds butter). I didn't heat the eggs to see how it would go, and the texture of the buttercream is amazing but it could be a bit sweeter.
It seems like after your replies that it might be my measurements:
1 pound sugar
1 cup water
4 eggs
1 pound butter
I looked at other recipes and it seems like there is too much sugar is this recipe??
I will keep on trying new recipes until I get the perfect one. Thanks Frank68 for the recipe!
When I said started using 50% shortening, it was for the purpose of making the buttercream more stable and less melty.
if you like the flavor, go with the 50/50 but you can use all butter if you want -- none of the fat should melt -- just watch the temperature of everything, by that I mean the temp of the meringue shouldn't be warm enough to melt whatever fat/s you use
and those shouldn't be allowed to get very warm esp. the butter -- and you let them soften slightly before adding to the not warm merngue and just don't let anything get that soft -- nothing should be melty
I do smbc with a 1:2:2 ratio. Don't know if cup (volume) measurements are okay since they are not very precise. Weight is what I use (-a scale).
Smbc is more stable OUTSIDE (especially in hot weather) with a 1:2:2 ratio and partial replacement of butter with shortening should help. A 1:3:3 ratio is more stable in the fridge as the butter helps to harden it. Don't know how you handle your cakes, but if you don't refrigerate them use the one with less butter.
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