Culinary College Student has Buttercream Excitement!

Student Contributor: Cassandra Rayne
Baking and Pastry Degree Program:
BPS in Baking & Pastry

Some things in life are rather unexpectedly complicated. Like Italian buttercream. It is something I must master!

For white fluff, it is awfully good at injecting fear into the heart of every inexperienced pastry student. We have all made it in class—successfully, even—from, say, one pound of sugar. But I am on externship now, and the quantities required are a little more realistic (or insane, depending on your perspective). Now, I make it from pounds upon pounds of sugar, in a mixer that is big enough to sleep comfortably in!

Italian buttercream is made by the terrifying process of pouring molten 240 F sugar into a meringue that is perfectly whipped to soft peak. In order to time it properly, you must begin whipping the whites (depending on the mixer) when the sugar reaches 235 F. (The panic generally begins when the thermometer reads 233 F.) When they are both ready, you rush (carefully, so as to avoid burning your fellow culinarians) with the scalding pot full of boiling sugar from the stove to the mixer (the first time, generally with your heart beating wildly due to fear and high probability of failure). You then slowly pour the sugar into the whipping egg whites, taking care to avoid the side of the bowl as well as the whirling whip. (I hear hot sugar on the face is unpleasant.) When the meringue is cool, you add the butter and whip it for a very long time—and finally, you have Italian buttercream.

When Chef Scott, the assistant pastry chef at my externship site, was giving me the particulars of how to do this on a bigger scale (with the pounds upon pounds of sugar), I could just feel the color leave my face. My eyes became very round, I am sure. This was probably hilarious for him to observe. As he was talking, I learned many things about making massive quantities of buttercream. By the time I was done actually making it, I had learned a good deal more. When Chef Schluszas, the executive pastry chef, saw and commented on my mess of a buttercream, I learned even more! Here is a sampling:

1. Wiping out the mixer with lemon juice before using it decreases the chances of any fat remaining in the bowl or whip. If there were fat, your eggs would whirl around in the bowl aimlessly. This is like playing on a merry-go-round: tons of fun, but in the end, you don’t really get anywhere. (I did not learn this the hard way.)



2. When pouring the sugar into the whites, you have to aim between two particular rungs on the cage of the mixer. This is because if you go between the inner two rungs, the sugar will hit the whip and fly everywhere, and you will be in pain; if you go between the outer two rungs, you will miss the bowl entirely, and you will feel like an idiot. (I did not learn this the hard way, either!)



3. A stockpot is handy for melting the sugar. Sissy pots are not good.



4. The speed of adding the sugar to the whites really does matter (yes, this is something I did learn the hard way). I thought I went slowly. I really put mental energy into pouring that sugar in nice and gentle, giving the whites all the time that they needed to puff up into a lovely voluminous cloud of steamy protein goodness. However, I discovered (as my whites turned into a sloshing soup) that I went far too quickly. Chef Scott assured me that when I added the butter, it would be usable. I added the butter, and although it was a bit… yellow… it was in fact usable.



5. Usable is relative. Chef Schluszas’ comments made this clear. We shall go no further with this topic.

As long as I am learning then all is well, right? That’s what I tell myself, anyway.