By: Helena Stallings, Culinary Arts Student
The foundation to making a perfect Swiss buttercream is to first make a Swiss meringue. Once you have made your meringue, the only ingredient you will need is 1 pound of soft butter, cut into small pieces. If you are feeling rushed and only have cold butter on hand, don’t worry because there is a trick that many culinary professionals use. Take your pound of butter and cut it into quarters. Then place your butter in between two layers of plastic wrap and pound it out to 1/4-1/2 inch thick sheet with a rolling pin, meat tenderizer or any kind of heavy object you have available. The friction from the pounding will start to warm up the butter and by pounding it out to a thin sheet you are creating more surface area to disperse the warmth.
When your butter is ready, attach your mixing bowl with the meringue to your mixer and turn it on a low speed. If you are using a KitchenAid, you are looking for a 4. Start breaking off a few pieces of butter and slowly add them into the meringue. Depending on how rich or dense you would like your buttercream, you may not need the whole pound of butter. In the “How to Make a Swiss Buttercream” video, Chef Jonathan only needed to use 14 of the 16 ounces. Once the butter has been incorporated into the meringue, you will notice that the meringue will start to break. This is a step that all buttercreams must go through, so don’t panic and continue mixing. After a few moments the meringue will re-solidify and you will have your fluffy, rich buttercream.
Swiss Buttercream Recipe
1 Swiss Meringue
– 1 lbs Sugar
– 8 ounces of Egg Whites
1 lbs Soft Butter
