A Thermomix TM7 guide ·
What to look for, when to stop, and what each stage is best used for — calibrated specifically for the Thermomix TM7 with butterfly whisk.
Egg whites are the most temperamental ingredient in the patisserie kitchen. Underwhisk and your soufflé won’t rise; overwhisk and your meringue weeps watery streaks across the baking tray. The Thermomix TM7 takes most of the variability out — but only if you know exactly what each stage looks like and stop at the right moment.
TM7 settings · for every stage
The stages
i.
Frothy
≈ 30 sec
Translucent, watery, with large, irregular bubbles on the surface. Through the TM7 lid, you’ll see the whites still sloshing, with a thin pale foam beginning to form. The mixture hasn’t yet gained any real volume.
Look for
A milky cloudiness replaces the original clear glassiness, and bubbles of varying sizes — some large, some pinhead. Add cream of tartar or a pinch of salt now if you’re using it.
Best used for
Clarifying stocks and consommés, egg wash for pastry, binding breadcrumb coatings. Rarely a target stage on its own — usually just a milestone you pass through.
ii.
Soft peaks
1 – 1.5 min
Opaque white, fine even bubbles. Stop the TM7, lift the butterfly: the peak flops over completely like soft-serve ice cream. Glossy, still pourable, and the volume has roughly tripled.
Look for
A peak that curls right back on itself. The mixture clings to the whisk briefly then slides off. No grain, no streaks of unwhipped white at the bottom of the bowl.
Best used for
Folding into soufflé bases that still need oven rise, light pancake and crêpe batters, tempura batter, lightening a génoise or chiffon cake. Start adding sugar here if you’re making meringue.
iii.
Medium peaks
2 – 2.5 min
The peak stands up but the very tip still droops slightly when the butterfly is lifted. Surface is satin smooth, no longer pourable, and clings to the whisk arms in soft swags.
Look for
A peak that stays vertical with just the top centimetre curling over. The mixture in the bowl holds its shape if you draw a line through it with a spatula.
Best used for
Chocolate mousse, cold soufflés, bavarois, lemon delicious pudding, île flottante, and folding into cake batters for lift without dryness. This is the sweet spot for most desserts.
iv.
Stiff peaks
3 – 4 min
Sharp upright peaks, bright white, glossy if sugar has been added. The classic bowl-over-head test: tip the mixing bowl upside down, and nothing should move. Volume is now roughly seven times the original liquid.
Look for
A peak that points straight up like a little mountain when the butterfly is lifted out. The foam clings to the inside of the TM7 bowl in firm clumps that don’t slide.
Best used for
French meringue, pavlova, macaron shells, baked Alaska, dacquoise, financiers, angel food cake, marshmallow, and hot soufflés — Grand Marnier, cheese, raspberry. Anything that needs maximum lift and structure in the oven.
v.
Overbeaten
5 min +
Grainy, dry, with a cottage cheese texture. A watery liquid starts to weep out at the base of the TM7 bowl as the protein structure collapses and releases the water it was trapping.
Look for
A dull, matte surface instead of glossy. Lumps that don’t smooth out. A puddle of clear yellowish liquid is forming under the foam. This is the moment of irreversible breakdown.
Rescue
Whisk one fresh raw egg white into the broken mixture by hand for 30 seconds. Often brings it back to soft peaks, occasionally to stiff. If that fails, start over with a clean dry bowl — there’s no chemical rescue.
How many whites can the TM7 actually handle?
The TM7 bowl is 2.2 L and a whisked egg white expands roughly seven times in volume. A single large white is about 35 ml of liquid, so eight whites — about 280 ml in — produces around 2 L of foam, filling the bowl right up to the lid. Beyond that, the foam either hits the lid (and stops getting air) or the butterfly can’t reach the top of the mass.
Bowl capacity
2.2 L
total volume
Practical max
8 whites
≈ 250 g · 280 ml liquid
Sweet spot
4 – 6
best whip, easy timing
Minimum
3
below this butterfly idles
Timings adjusted for quantity
Six things worth knowing
- MC off is non-negotiable. The butterfly needs the open lid to draw air into the bowl. With the measuring cup in place, you’ll get warm whites, not whipped whites.
- 37 °C gives the most reliable result for stiff peaks. It gently warms cold-from-the-fridge whites to the temperature at which ovalbumen denatures most cooperatively. Skip the heat for cold mousses where you’ll fold into a cold ganache.
- Watch through the lid, not the timer. The TM7 reaches stiff peaks faster than a hand mixer and overshoots in under a minute. Set short increments — 30 seconds at a time — rather than one long run, especially the first time you make a recipe.
- Aged whites whip higher than fresh. Whites that are a week or two old (separated and kept covered in the fridge) reach greater volume than ultra-fresh whites because their proteins have loosened slightly. Patisseries swear by this.
- Don’t push past 8 whites. If you need more, whip in two batches and fold them together by hand. Better than a half-whipped failure where the bottom of the bowl never reached stiff.
- Pre-clean with vinegar or lemon if you’ve used the bowl for anything oily that day. Any trace of fat — even a fingerprint — will stop the whites mounting properly.
A note on egg size: these quantities assume standard UK large eggs at roughly 35 g of white each. If you’re using extra-large free-range eggs (45 g+ of white), reduce the count by one or two and treat the gram weight as the real limit.
