Meringue Tips

A visitor called and said whenever she makes a pie with a meringue top, it always gets watery.

It’s not the humidity or even the fast cooling that causes meringues to “weep”. Most likely, the culprit is undercooking or overcooking. Overcooking causes beading. Weeping is the watery layer between the top and filling, and that’s caused by undercooking.

The best thing to do is pile meringue onto the pie while the pie is still hot. Go ahead and beat the meringue before making the filling. The sugar stabilizes it. So does adding cornstarch to stabilize it even further.

Sprinkle cake crumbs over the hot filling before spooning on the meringue so if there’s any leakage, the crumbs absorb it.

Meringue is easy and impressive.