Not All Cloud Products Are the Same
I had mixed feelings after looking at different photos and recipes for cloud bread, a food that has become quite popular on TikTok. One of them was confusion. I came across two completely different versions: one looked like multi-colored cotton candy and the other looked like cobblestone-like brown pancakes. Also, the recipes for the more cloud-like of the two seemed preternaturally similar to meringue. I have good news and bad news about cloud bread. The bad news is that cute is trash worthy. This is really very bad. However, there is also a bright side. Cobblestone is inspiringly edible, and there are ways to improve both of them.
I’d like to clear up a few things before we review these furry products. Cloud bread is not bread. Both the sweet and savory versions are made almost entirely from beaten eggs. Any minor ingredients add little to the flavor and are mainly intended to stabilize the beaten eggs. The beauty of egg “bread” is that it’s low in carbs, fat, and calories. Cloud bread also contains several nutrients that most breads don’t (because it’s eggs) and can serve as an alternative for those on dietary restrictions due to gluten sensitivity or diabetes. Cloud bread is fluffy, dry and mild in flavor. When cooked properly, Savory Cloud Bread is strong, flexible, and can accommodate sandwich toppings while working effectively like real bread. Now let’s fix some bugs.
Sweet Cloud Bread
I’m guessing this is the cloud bread version that got everyone’s attention on TikTok. It is very soft, tall, bouncy and naturally completely white. It can be easily dyed to create vibrant, colorful fluff mounds. Biting into puffy cloud bread looks and feels like chewing on a cartoon cumulus cloud. Unfortunately, the terrible taste will bring you back to Earth.
Sweet cloudy bread – meringue. It’s not meringue , it’s meringue, renamed. Both recipes call for beaten egg whites with sugar and sometimes a stabilizer such as acid or starch. Depending on what else you add, how you cook and how you finish this fluffy mass, you can get anything from marshmallows to crunchy meringue cookies. My problem with this “bready” variety is that when it’s done, the outer layer becomes extremely sticky, making it impossible to handle, and the taste is disgusting because it’s a raw meringue that never dries out. This does not mean that it is unsafe to eat. This simple meringue, sometimes called French meringue, is common and edible. But the taste of raw, sticky egg white is especially unpleasant when eaten on its own. This is a flavor that appears as an aftertaste but stays in your nose for an hour. French meringues are commonly used to decorate desserts with flavorful ingredients like lemon curd or chocolate mousse, so the egg white flavor doesn’t overpower you. Cloud bread drowns you in it. Because all the recipes I have found are very low in sugar and given that it is the only other ingredient other than cornstarch, there are no other flavors to latch on to and you need a lot more sugar for it to taste like anything.
If meringue is your thing, I suggest sticking with the classics and adding some food coloring for a festive feel. Try meringue cookies , pavlova, or any of the desserts listed here . For fluffy meringues that are stable and cloud-like, whip up a sumptuous helping of marshmallows . You can even ditch the typical square and collect marshmallows in the form of round clouds. At the very least, use cooked meringue to make your cloudy bread. Swiss meringue and Italian meringue are cooked as they cook, eliminating the odor of raw egg white.
Spicy Cloud Bread
In the fictional cloud bread story I imagine, it’s OG. It’s not meringue masquerading as something else, and I see it as a really good alternative for those who can’t or prefer not to eat bread. Savory cloud bread includes very few ingredients. Separate the eggs and set the whites aside. Add a few tablespoons of cream cheese to the egg yolks along with salt. (Infinitely better already, because we get flavor.) The egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks with any stabilizers listed in the recipe, and folded into the egg yolk mixture. The clouds are then laid out on a baking sheet lined with parchment and baked in the oven at 300°F for about 20 minutes. These fluffy omelettes swell, lightly brown and deflate into 2D cartoon clouds.
I used this recipe for cloud bread and they turned out beautifully. At first I thought, why not just make an omelette or protein wraps ? But these flats have some useful qualities of bread. For the most part, they cling to their furry texture; the aeration of the egg allows the top layer to dry in the oven, so they aren’t slippery like omelettes and your fingers don’t get wet when you hold them. Like most sandwich breads, it has a mild flavor and remains firm yet flexible even with sandwich filling on top. The bubble structure dissipates any strong egg flavors and you can almost imagine it’s bread.
To further elevate your spicy clouds, use a blank canvas. As long as you don’t add too much liquid, you can give these tortillas any flavor you like. Add spices and herbs such as garlic powder, cayenne pepper, dried basil, or thyme. Add some hot, fish or Worcestershire sauce. Stack some sandwiches between two slices and enjoy your clouds.