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Meringue Tips




Source of Recipe


FootsieBear


List of Ingredients




The first meringue topped pie I ever made was a peanut butter pie & I was terrified it would weep. Truthfully, it didn't last long enough for me to find out. It also had so much peanut butter in it & was so thick I thought I was eating pb right out of the jar. The second pie had less pb, was not as thick, lasted longer & sure enough it started to weep after a couple days in the fridge, but at least I got the right amount of peanut butter in it! Several more pies & meringue recipes later & I still had not conquered the weeping problem. Some weeped, some didn't but I didn't know why.

I tried cream of tarter, cornstarch, Gloria Pitzer's marshmallow cream (way to sweet) & I even tried meringue powder.

It wasn't until I made Jessie's Heirloom Key Lime Pie (several times) that I realized what I was doing different with that pie.

The recipe I originally saved just said to cook the filling til thick. It gave no specific time. How thick was thick? I'd look at it & think "It's thick, but is it thick enough?" & let it cook longer. I finally decided that if the cooking filling looked as thick as it would be if it were cooled, then it was thick enough. Sure enough, that was the secret.

No matter what filling I use, scratch pudding filling or box pudding, as long as I ignore the cooking time in the recipe or on the box & let it cook until it has the consistency of cooled pudding, the meringue never weeps.

It doesn't matter if the filling is hot, warm or cooled. It all works. One other thing I do, is spread a thin layer of meringue all over the pie, all the way to the edge & touch the crust. Then I pile on the rest of it & make my peaks or put it in a cake decorator & pipe it into a design.

So it's not the meringue recipe, it's the thickness of the filling. I now make my meringue with just:

3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar

Beat egg whites till stiff. Add sugar and beat till stiff but not dry. Bake till golden brown. (Sometimes "torch it" instead.)

Recipe