Lemon Meringue Pie

[matmob]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the forum so I hope I have put it into the correct section.  I made the Lemon Meringue Pie from the EDC for the first time on the weekend, and was a little worried that the meringue wouldn't turn out, as I had heard a few people say they had not had success with meringue.  I found that after following the instructions in the book, my whites were not stiff, so I increased the speed to 4 and continued to beat them for about a further 2 mins.  This seemed to do the trick, although I think you would get a better result using hand beaters.  Would be interested to hear of others experience with beating egg whites.  The rest of the pie was delicious.

[cookie1]

Welcome Matmob, you did well to have meringue success. I'm afraid that I still use a hand beater for my meringues. I'm a scaredy cat

[Very Happy Jan]

Great job with the meringue Matmob. There have been a few discussions on here about how to get it right

[bigTcup]

My DH has made this twice - very yummy.  The first time he had about a third of the lemon curd left over.  The second time we tried to use raw sugar (milled down into icing sugar) even though the recipe clearly states to use white sugar only.  The recipe is correct, the raw sugar definitely didn't work 

[Thermomixer]

Welcome matmob - did you heat the egg whites to 37 or 50 deg wile whipping?  I prefer in KAid.

[matmob]

I did them at 50 degrees  just as it says in the EDC.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

My DH has made this twice - very yummy.  The first time he had about a third of the lemon curd left over.  The second time we tried to use raw sugar (milled down into icing sugar) even though the recipe clearly states to use white sugar only.  The recipe is correct, the raw sugar definitely didn't work 

We use milled organic raw sugar and it works well.  I mill for 20 seconds at speed 9, scrape down and mill for a further 20 seconds. 

[pandateddy]

I have tried this recipe a few times and have not had much success with the meringue. I have also tried making pavlova several times that flopped so now I use my regular mixmaster for the meringue. But the rest of the lemon meringue pie was delicious.

[KatieV]

I gave this a go on the weekend and had a success with it.  My only comment is that according to the recipe in EDC, it lists 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar in the ingredients list, yet there is no mention of using it in the method??

I added the COT at the same time I was adding icing sugar.  Maybe this is why the meringue for some other people may not have worked and mine did - not sure.

Will be making this one again, but upping the amount of lemon as I like my lemon curd to be very lemony and tangy.

Cheers,
Katie

[judydawn]

Katie, I have just answered this query on the other forum as well.  The cream of tartar helps stabilize and allow egg whites to reach maximum volume so I would put it in with the egg whites.

[zebraa]

I use milled raw sugar for eveything - including meringues. Works fine.

[Rosie]

Meringue needs a really clean bowl and make sure you don't get any shell, even the dust of the shell in the egg whites.  Whether the TM or beaters are used, I wipe the bowl and blades/beater/paddle out with either lemon juice or vinegar.  This cuts through any grease of any kind that may hinder the egg white whipping up either to soft or stiff peak.  The cream of tartar is an egg white stabilizer and is used with the egg whites in the whipping up stage, can also add a pinch of salt which helps to give a very morish flavour.
Interestingly my first attempt was a failure in the TM, due to grease in the bowl and on the paddle from using butter, even though I washed the bowl in very hot soapy water and thought it was clean, it wasn't now I make sure by using the vinegar rinse. you guys probably know all this, but just incase.

[dyljon]

I've made this twice - 1st time worked perfectly, 2nd time eggs didn't stiffen. I realised that I hadn't cleaned bowl thoroughly enough after making bolognaise so was still some residue oil. Pulled it apart and washed in really hot soapy water, tried again and was perfect. I think it does whip up just as good as KA, but just needs to be completely clean. I didn't use cream if tatar or salt, just plain old shop-bought icing sugar (was at mum's house and she didn't have raw sugar to mill!)

I put a bit of extra zest into the curd to make it more tangy

[Coops]

I really want to make this today but only have rapadurra. Will have to go and get some white or raw sugar me thinks!

[amamelreb]

We did tonight, eggs fluffed up, added sugar and turned to water, what have i done wrong