I’ve been enamoured of royal icing ever since one of the chef/instructors in culinary school taught me “the love of the royal”, as she called it. Royal icing, at its core, is nothing more than egg white and confectioner sugar. In its stiff stage, royal icing is the confectionery equivalent of super strength concrete, able to support all kinds of sugar showpieces and gingerbread skyscrapers. In its flood stage, it’s the paint we cookie makers use for our creations.
For many years, I used liquid pasteurized egg whites in my royal icing. Even buying in bulk from my purveyor, I still wasted a lot of those whites. And that’s like throwing money down the sink. That’s when I began using egg white powder.
Now, egg white powder is just that. Dehydrated egg whites. They’re available in supermarkets under the brand name “Deb-El Just Whites”. Again, I buy mine from my purveyor in large quantities. They’re great…I hydrate the amount I need, if it’s too much I can store in the ‘fridge for a few days. No more waste! And, there’s a substantial shelf-life for the whites, so I don’t worry about them going bad on me.
The thing is, I see that many of my cohorts in cookiedom out there are using meringue powder. The meringue powder ingredient list begins with cornstarch. Cornstarch is a thickening agent, I’ll give you that. Then comes the egg white powder. Next up is gum arabic, an emulsifier, calcium sulfate (?), citric acid, cream of tartar, silicon something or other (as a whitening agent) and, last but not least, artificial flavor.
Maybe I’m missing something? IF the recipe for royal icing is, as I stated earlier, egg whites and confectioner sugar, why bother with the meringue powder? Cornstarch is already in my confectioner sugar; that’s what makes it confectioner sugar. Citric acid? I add fresh lemon juice. Cream of tartar? I skip it. Whitening agent? I don’t think so….keep beating enough air into royal icing and it’ll whiten on its own. Artificial flavor? Not on my watch. Again, I’ll add lemon juice for a bit of flavor, not to mention that the citric acid in the lemon juice acts as a speed dryer in the royal, too.
I will grant you that the meringue powder is a bit less expensive than egg white powder. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, but I think you may end up using more of it than the egg white powder. Which makes it a non-money saver in my humble opinion.
Here’s what I do: I measure out 1/3 c. dried egg white powder and add 1 c. of warm water to reconstitute. Let the water sit for a bit to fully hydrate the powder, then whisk gently to dissolve. Then, use 3 oz. egg whites for a pound of confectioner sugar. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice. That’s it. Now, I grant you, that the humidity level in your area will determine how much egg white you use.
Try it yourself and let me know if I’ve been helpful or just a royal pain.
POST SCRIPT: Please use 3 oz. reconstituted whites per one pound of confectioners sugar. Reconsitute the dry whites according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Of course I read this wonderful bit of usefullness AFTER I buy Meringue powder…oh well. Great post, very helpful
Good to know! I was actually contemplating the dehydrated egg whites at the store thinking, “I bet these would work instead of meringue powder.” I actually don’t really like the flavor of most meringue powders so I’ll give the egg whites a try! Sure beats separating out fresh eggs (which I do pretty often). Although, I’ll have fewer egg yolks hanging around for ice cream. *Le Sigh*
This is great to know. I started out making royal icing with egg whites, but was nervous about contamination issues. Is powdered egg white pasteurized?
I can’t WAIT to see a video of this!
great post as usual!
Have you heard of an egg replacer powder (such as Ener-G) being used to make royal icing? My son has an egg allergy, and I think I’m going to do a little experiment…
I have heard of Ener-G. It’s used in a lot of vegan and gluten-free cooking. Haven’t used it myself, yet. Let me know how you like it, if you use it.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Great post to help understand the difference between dried egg whites and meringue powder. I’ve always used fresh egg white with lemon juice and icing sugar, but then whenever I would have a large quantity of flooded cookies drying, the smell of egg white was pretty bad. I got the same smell with dried egg whites, so that’s why I switched to meringue powder. It seems more pleasant to my nose, especially when making 100-300 cookies at a time. Thanks for sharing and I love your cookies.
Hannah
I just came across this blog and I LOVE IT!!!! I can’t wait to read more! I also cannot wait to try this royal recipe!
I first tried my hand at making decorated cookies this spring. My goal was to make them for my future daughter in laws bridal shower in July. Way too busy to get them done. So I just made them for the rehearsal dinner. My first attempt at royal icing, I used the bagged mix. Sooo expensive, not great tasting and I wasted quite a bit.
So I thought I would try your egg white method. It was with much trepidation that I bought the Deb El whites at my local Kroger. $12.45 for the can! Yikes, I thought as I put them in the cart. I am so glad that I did. I used less than a quarter of the can and I made 12 dozen cookies. It was my first attempt at outlines and flooding. (The class I took in the spring had us “frost” the backgrounds with a knife.)
They came out great! They were not perfect; but I learned quite a bit. They looked great all bagged up and the groomsmen started eating them even before dinner was served! Thanks so much for your help!! I am eagerly looking for the next opportunity to make some pretty cookies.
Marie, I’m SO happy to hear this!!! Keep practicing. You’ll get there, I promise.
Where do you buy dried egg powder and is it safe to eat? I really want to try this recipe b/c i can never get my royal icing just right!
I’m so glad I came across this post! I am making royal icing for the first time this week and could not find meringue powder ANYWHERE so I bought powdered egg whites hoping they would work. I still have to tweak the amount of water, but glad to know they do work!
Great! I’m reading theese blogs for the first time, and was wondering why I needed meringue powder.
Now I can just go ahead and make RI as I’m used to
/Godte, Denmark
I just tried this tonight because I had previously used Wilton meringue powder and absolutely hated the taste of it.
I used more fresh lemon juice than you suggested to give it a stronger flavor, and I must say, this tastes fabulous for a royal icing. There’s no artificial taste to it.
However, I did have some trouble with the powder not quite dissolving totally, and my icing had little bits running through it that clogged up my tip #2. I’m making a second batch tomorrow and have already dissolved the powder in hopes that it will get out the little bits by tomorrow when I need to use it. Have you had this trouble before? How long do you stir to reconstitute? The first time I dumped it in with the water in my kitchen aid and stirred for a few minutes before continuing on. It seems to work better by hand.
Regardless, thanks for this because even if I do have to go back to meringue powder because of the hard bits, I learned to add lemon juice.
When you add the water to the egg white powder and stir it, let it sit for a while so the little bits get fully hydrated. That helps a lot.
I use a whisk to stir it up, let it sit a while longer…(10 minutes). Works well for me.
Good luck! Thanks for the comments, Tara!
I tried again today, and it worked perfectly– no little bits at all. I just needed to let it sit and rehydrate for longer. Thanks for your help!
Hi,
very good article.
I use this:Instant Royal Icing Mix
bye it from here:
http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk/
is different?
That product probably has a mixture of the meringue powder and confectioners sugar.
Hi Gail! I tried the egg whites powder recipe. My first batch was bad, I think that I put to much water, it takes for ever to dry, and when finaly did, was discolored and ugly.
My second batch (after saw your video on University of cookie)was great, so easy to work, my cookies were beautiful, dries fast, but was to hard to bite. Am I doing something wrong? maybe beat it to little…
maybe so much lemon juice (about 2 tsp). Thank you in advance.
I love your cakes decorated with cookies, and of course, your cookies!
PS: I have a blog to! jus started a month ago…
http://www.completamentedulce.blogspot.com
Gail! What a wonderful blog you have! I’ve really enjoyed all that I’ve read here, and now can’t wait to try my Royal Icing with dried egg whites. I can’t find it at my grocery store yet…but I’m on the hunt.
Cheers!
Hi! Your blog is wonderful and I have found your tips very useful- thank you! In the interest of thrift, I am trying to have no waste of the egg white powder. Since I make royal icing in smaller quantities, I would like to know how much egg white powder I would measure out to reconsititute to measure exactly 1/3 cup of liquid (plus the pound of confectiones’s sugar and lemon juice). My guess is that it would be about 2 T.- is that right? Thanks again!
Hi Sherry! Yes, that’s right. Here’s a link to Deb El’s measurement guide. This will help you.
Thank you for the compliments!
Gail
Stress Free Royal Icing Recipe
hello! could you please please help me. i bought a 50 gram jar of egg white powder. i dont want to make a whole cup of egg whites (its too much) how do i go about making less? like for a tablespoon of powder how much water do i add? thankyou!!! :0)
Karen, 2 teaspoons of egg white powder mixed w/ 2 Tablespoons of water will give you the equivalent of one egg white. Click here for the complete guide to reconstituting the powder. Hope this helps!
came out perfect! thankyou so much!!
I’m really glad I found your post (from University of Cookie). I’ve never iced my cookies and want to give it a try this weekend. I’ve seen meringue powder around, but haven’t ever seen egg white powder in any of my local stores. Then again I wasn’t looking for it. I hope I can find it. It sounds much preferable to meringue powder. Thanks much. Happy holidays!
Ok. I have a question. Do you beat the egg whites until stiff first, then add the sugar? Or do you add it all together then beat? I use LilaLoa’s royal icing recipe which uses dried egg whites and she beats eggs first with lemon juice. But when i read recipes using meringue powder, they add all the ingredients together, then beat. How do you do yours specifically? Also, I’m always unsure of how long to beat it. Everyone talks about a glossy matte look or something, but I feel like its a guessing game. Do you have a roundabout time frame? 3 minutes on high? 5 minutes? I know it’s not an exact science, i just sometimes feel like with the same recipe I sometimes end up with a full bowl of icing, or sometimes it’s only like half full. I’m thinking I’m not beating consistently each time?
I finally found a place where I could buy JUST egg white powder, and JUST egg yolk powder. The Egg Store. It’s online, and I have found it very helpful for those cooking and baking recipes where you need to add “X eggs plus (1) or (2) egg whites (or yolks)”. Very handy! Just re-constitute the egg white, or egg yolk, like Gail does, and add it to the rest. Using the powder also makes me less apprehensive regarding using egg products in uncooked end products. Thanks for explaining the difference between the meringue powder and egg white powder. Wow! It’s great to know what you are eating.