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Message: [QUOTE="Cahoot, post: 43535, member: 3784"] Egg whites should be white and foamy when when you begin to add sugar [ATTACH type="full" alt="5B366EB9-049C-4DA4-AB1E-4AB333FAE4D5.jpeg"]3048[/ATTACH] Properly beaten egg whites should be shiny, full, and moist. [ATTACH type="full" alt="380A4B82-09BD-42CC-991A-FACEB5243829.jpeg"]3049[/ATTACH] Italian meringue buttercream after I added the vanilla bean paste—you can see the flecks of vanilla bean seeds [ATTACH type="full" alt="F041167A-2B9E-49FB-8611-6E0E844CFB41.jpeg"]3050[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE] So I've been reading up on buttercream recipes now, and there are just a couple questions that popped into my head. 1) When you finish whipping and meringue and start adding the butter, does it make a bit difference whether you switch to the paddle attachment or stay with the whisk? I've seen some people recommend the paddle to minimize incorporating air into the buttercream, which keeps it smoother. Others switch to the paddle at the very end to knock out air bubbles. However I've seen a lot of other recipes also just stick with using the whisk the entire time too. 2) Probably related to the first question, but I noticed when you add the butter you reduce the speed to the lowest setting, and continue mixing on low for the rest of the recipe. I've seen most other recipes call for mixing on medium or high speed, for when the butter is being added and to finish mixing the buttercream. I'm assuming the lower speed is like point (1), to minimize incorporating air? However are there concerns of the butter not emulsifying properly into the mixture if the speed is too low? 3) Outside of the meringue itself, does the mixing method matter whether you're making a Swiss or Italian buttercream? I.e. once you start adding the butter, would the steps in the recipe be identical? I think I honestly got a bit dizzy after cross-referencing so many recipes and staring at the spreadsheet I made to compare their ratios lmao. [/QUOTE]

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