Lemon meringue pie

[Tintagel]

Can anyone tell me why when I make a lemon meringue pie I always have a liquid when I cut it.

I’ve tried putting the filling in cold no difference so I tried putting the filling hot agao
in no difference,

I’ve tried using an Italian me Riga now and a traditional baked meringue.

any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Can anyone tell me why when I make a lemon meringue pie I always have a liquid when I cut it.

I’ve tried putting the filling in cold no difference so I tried putting the filling hot agao
in no difference,

I’ve tried using an Italian me Riga now and a traditional baked meringue.

any help would be appreciated, thanks.

1. Use cream of tartar in your meringue will help to stabilize it. Your egg whites should be at least 68°F before you begin to beat them. Beat for 45 seconds on medium speed. Add 1/2 tsp cream of tartar.

2. Do not add the sugar too soon and add the sugar very slowly to the meringue. If the sugar is added too soon and too quickly it will destabilize the egg whites. The egg whites should be frothy before gradually adding the sugar. See photo.

3. You can further stabilize the meringue with cornstarch. Before beating the egg whites, dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 80 ml water. Heat over medium heat until until it comes to a simmer and slightly thickened about 1 - 2 minutes. Set aside.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar; slowly add sugar and beat until full and billowy but not at any peak stage. Add the cooked cornstarch a spoonful at a time.

4. Use Pierre Herme lemon cream filling. It is different from the traditional lemon filling in meringue pie. But trust me it is far superior. The link below has the recipe. Pre-bake a pie shell. Then add the lemon cream. Shortly before serving pipe on the meringue and caramelize with a torch or under the broiler

Lemon Bars v Lemon Meringue pie?

Is there supposed to be any difference between the lemon filling on either? Also, most lemon bar recipes I've seen call for 4 to 8 complete eggs (yolks with whites), and one or two recipes are using just the egg yolks. Is one better than the other, at least in terms of yellowness to the...

www.baking-forums.com

 

[Cahoot]

I actually made lemon meringue pie using Pierre Hermé's lemon cream twice very recently. The cream is very good and rich, though it's true that it's different from the traditional cornstarch-thickened lemon filling, so you could give it a try and see if you prefer it.

On the meringue, I've never been able to pull it off successfully, and while I hate making excuses, I think it may be since I'm using a hand mixer since I don't have a stand mixer.

The first time, I used an Italian meringue heated to 255°F, but it never got to stiff enough peaks after adding the syrup. I had to actually place the bowl in a hot water bath to get it to firm up a bit, but didn't get to quite the stage I wanted and was a bit runny when cutting. However, I did use the tricks mentioned above (adding cream of tartar and the cornstarch paste), and there wasn't any weeping from the meringue, even several days later.

The second time was actually today; I tried a Swiss meringue using Stella's recipe, but again the meringue couldn't even reach soft peaks after 20 minutes of beating, so I placed it in the hot water bath. Unfortunately this time, I guess I heated it too much, since it initially gained lots of volume and was on the way to stiff peaks, but then lost all the volume and became super dense, essentially just becoming a marshmallow cream. It actually ended up breaking one of the tines on my whisk attachment, so quite an unfortunate failure this time. I guess I'll just hold off on making Swiss/Italian meringues until I get a stand mixer haha.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

yes I think it is difficult to make meringue without a stand mixer. It’s possible but the quality of the meringue is not as good because the stability of the meringue is dependent on the uniformity of the air bubbles. A stand mixer is more consistent in its speed than a hand mixer, so it creates smaller and more consistent size air bubbles in the egg whites.

While I prefer Italian meringue when I make buttercream, I prefer Swiss meringue for this application because the hot sugar syrup makes for too soft a meringue.

 

[retired baker]

Can anyone tell me why when I make a lemon meringue pie I always have a liquid when I cut it.

I’ve tried putting the filling in cold no difference so I tried putting the filling hot agao
in no difference,

I’ve tried using an Italian me Riga now and a traditional baked meringue.

any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Filling should be cool before topping with meringue , otherwise it will steam/dissolve the meringue.
Its probably weeping because its not cooked through, a quick browning in the oven isn't enough to cook the egg whites through.