Meringue

This is one of the most simple recipe but difficult to succeed it. I have tried dozens of versions until arriving to this miracle recipe. Most of the times I was beating well the eggs white but i was failing to cook them right.
So here it is, perfect meringues, dried outside, well filled inside and with no big holes.

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites ( kept in a perfectly closed bowl inside the fridge for at least a day and kept at least 3 hours before using them at room temperature)
• 300g sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• food colouring (optionally)

Directions:

1. Put the egg whites in the metallic bowl of a standing mixer and put the bowl over another pan with boiling water to cook the egg whites at bain marie. Take care the boiling water to not touch the mixing bowl.
2. Heat the egg whites and stir continuously to avoid making them white. They should remain transparent.
3. Add slowly the sugar and continue to mix.
4. When the egg whites reached 60ºC remove them from the heat. The sugar should have been totally dissolved.
5. Put the bowl to the standing mixer and mix until they become white.
6. Add the cornstarch and continue to beat the egg whites for 10-15 minutes until they have stiffing peaks. As it is cooked it can be eaten or used for topping the cakes as it is.
7. Preheat the oven at 100ºC.
8. Prepare 2 large trays on which lay 2 silicone sheets. It works with baking sheets as well.
9. Take a posh and with the add of a skewer stick that was initially dropped in food colouring make some rays inside. I made 8.
10. Fill the posh with the meringue and make little meringues over the silicon sheets.
11. Put the trays in the oven for 1 hour at 100ºC keeping the oven door open for 1cm using the handle of a wooden spoon. It is necessary to let the door open to eliminate any steam inside the oven. Otherwise the meringues will not dry and they will remain sticky. Preferably chose a program for the oven that uses a fan to dry well meringues.
12. When the hour has passed, take them out of the oven if is is to be eaten at this moment, if not keep them inside the oven to cool with the door closed. After that it is essential to avoid humid places to not have again sticky meringues.