Chocolate Swiss Meringue buttercream is so good I could eat it all right off the spoon. But I restrain myself and save (most of) it for my cakes.
This particular recipe is a light and creamy chocolate frosting, almost a bit like chocolate mousse. I love using it to frost cakes and fill macarons.
And here’s the best part, to make chocolate Swiss Meringue buttercream, all you have to do is mix in some melted chocolate! I recommend using semi-sweet or dark chocolate, as the buttercream already has a lot of sugar in it. The chocolate and the frosting balance each other out and you end up with more of a milk chocolate flavor.
If you’re new to making meringue based buttercreams, you’ll want to read my post on making regular Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It’s not difficult to make, but there are a few important steps that you need to understand. Mainly, you need to understand how to whip up a proper meringue and how to make sure everything is at the right temperature to mix. But like I said, all the info you need is in that post. 🙂
Check out the video below to see how to make it, then grab the recipe below to make your own!
Light and fluffy Swiss meringue buttercream with a delicious milk chocolate flavor. Weigh egg whites, sugar, and salt into a metal bowl. Stir to combine. In a pot with a slightly smaller opening than your bowl, bring about a half inch of water to a simmer. Place the bowl with the egg white mixture over the pot of steaming water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not actually touch the water. Stir the mixture gently but continuously with a rubber spatula until it reaches a temperature of 160F/71C. Take care to scrape the sides of the bowl so that all of the sugar gets dissolved into the egg whites. Strain the egg white mixture through a fine mesh sieve into the bowl of your stand mixer. Whip on high speed with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form and the meringue cools down to below 90F/ 32C. The the bowl should not feel warm to the touch. Once the meringue is ready, whisk on low speed and begin to add the butter about a tablespoon at a time. Wait for each chunk of butter to mix in completely before adding the next piece. After all the butter has been added, you may need to continue mixing for a few more minutes to get everything to smooth out. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and the set aside to cool. Once cooled, stream the melted chocolate into the buttercream with the mixer on medium speed. Add optional vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix once last time to combine. Ideally, you want the meringue and the butter temperatures to average out to about room temperature in order to mix properly. I find that the buttercream mixes best at about 75F, but anywhere between 70-80F should work. Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(10 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
To fix split/ cold buttercream, simply remove a small portion to heat up in the microwave. Mix the heated buttercream back in to bring the temperature of the whole batch up. Repeat as necessary until the buttercream comes together.
To fix warm/ melted buttercream, simply place the whole bowl in the fridge for 5-15 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and re whip the buttercream. Repeat as necessary until the buttercream comes together.
STORAGE: Swiss meringue buttercream can be stored at room temperature, lightly covered, for a day. It can also be stored in an airtight container the fridge for 1-2 weeks or in the freezer 3-4 months.
2 Comments
Pam
November 8, 2020 at 5:41 amI have a question. I usually make Italian Meringue Buttercream. I buy all my butter in advance of baking and store it in freezer (I use
Land O Lakes brand). When ready to make buttercream I take it out of freezer and let it comet to room temperature 68-70 degrees F.
After making my buttercream I put it in my freezer stored in a large Ziplock bag as it takes up less space. I also want to mention that for a vanilla IMBC I always use the best brand of vanilla bean paste! After making BC I taste it to make sure I’ve put in enough vanilla. When ready to frost my cake and my BC is room temp I rewhip to remove air. What I have been noticing lately is the buttercream seems to lose the nice vanilla flavor it had before freezing. The texture is great but flavor is lacking which was just fine when I have first made it. I usually only freeze BC for two weeks in freezer. So why is this happening. Is it because butter I froze once before making BC and then after making freeze again? Or is the brand of butter (which I’ve used over the years) . I use about 1 1/2 T of vanilla paste for a recipe that uses 8 egg whites. I am doing a wedding cake for the first time and need to solve this problem. Any advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks.
Katie
November 21, 2020 at 7:50 amHi Pam, I’m not sure what the issue is as I haven’t experienced any loss of flavor from freezing buttercream myself. I would try making your buttercream ahead of time as usual and then just adding the vanilla in when you’re ready to use it. Maybe the vanilla just isn’t holding up well in the freezer?