Some Final Comments on This Week’s Meringue

Two days after being baked, the meringue is still light, foamy, and not at all sticky. It is not weeping and there are no little beads of moisture developing. It is still firmly attached to the top of the lemon filling. And strangely enough, the filling seems less watery today and the crust is nice and crisp. I have no idea how that works. The crust was completely waterlogged yesterday. The only explanation I can come up with is that the excess water leaked out of the cut pie into the pan allowing the remaining slices to dry out a bit. But who even knows? 🤷

I’ve been reading up on why lemon meringue pie is prone to becoming watery and I have a couple of tips to try that could potentially help. So there really might be another real meringue pie in the not-so-distant future. Anyone who knows me well knows that a culinary conundrum is like the call of the wild to me. I have to figure out how to fix the kitchen chemistry so that my brain can let it go. I guess it’s a good thing that we like lemon meringue pie!

Let me wrap things up with a completely non-pie related matter. It would seem that the meringue and the turkey were not the only successes this year. Apparently, this year’s gravy was also top notch. We ate leftovers for dinner this evening and once the mashed potatoes were gone, Malia asked if she could heat up the last little bit of gravy and eat it with a spoon. 😂

The Real Meringue

I’ve spent the past two decades learning how to bake without eggs and milk, which are in all reality the basic building blocks of so many confections. But out of need, I experimented and failed and tried again and over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at creating a variety of allergen free versions of cakes, cookies, pies, candies, etc. Most people never even know that the goodies that show up at ward events or bake sales are sans milk and eggs. And I’ve never begrudged the need to make such accommodations in my cooking. It was just one of my missions in life to ensure that Matthew never felt the sting of his allergies in his own home and to provide him with the childhood joys of enjoying a warm chocolate chip cookie, savoring a sticky sweet cinnamon roll, and blowing out the candles on a decadent birthday cake. 

Having said that, with Matthew away from home for a season, I’m happily taking advantage of the opportunity to use more traditional ingredients in some of my baking. I used real eggs in Malia’s birthday cake, made fudge with real butter, and am already thinking about what kind of cheesecake to make for my birthday. But the one I’m super excited about today is meringue made with real eggs. The bean juice works, which still kind of blows my mind, and talking about “bean juice pie” is always a fabulous conversation starter, but I have actually been a little bit giddy about being able to use real eggs so that I can get some of the stability and volume that is such a struggle with bean juice. I know some folks are making magnificent meringues with aquafaba from chickpeas, but since Matthew is allergic to those, I’ve been using the liquid from navy or great northern beans, and it just isn’t as stable. But it works. And the lemon meringue pie is one of Matthew’s favorites, so I’m happy to bean it up and I feel like I’m learning new things every time I try it. 

So, it was a bit of a heady feeling to separate the eggs, turn on the Bosch, and watch the volume increase. I know that probably sounds stupid, but I enjoy baking. It is like therapy for me. Seriously, I was feeling anxious last week so I made bread. And it definitely helped my mood. And it is much cheaper than the hourly rate of most therapists. And as an extra bonus, it leaves a much better taste in your mouth. 😜 So yes, I’m not ashamed to say that today’s meringue filled me with glee. Piling it up high on top of the lemon filling made me smile. Creating the traditional peaks that held their shape in a most marvelous manner resulted in a ridiculous grin. And taking the final results out of the oven perfectly browned and still just as voluminous nearly made me laugh. I can hardly wait to taste my creation!

Other than the luscious lemon meringue, our pie menu is small this year. We have two pumpkin pies (plus a tiny one for Kevin’s parents), a cherry pie (which is Malia’s favorite), and a cranberry orange custard (which is Nathan’s favorite pie of all time). So, six pies in total, five for my own little crew. Tawni is flabbergasted by the whole pie thing. The thought of a full pie per person just blows her mind. She says they usually have about two pies and that feeds the entire extended family. However, my mom’s thirty-two pies still make my half dozen appear extremely moderate. And Tawni did get to experience pie day at my mom’s house, which is pie making on an entirely different level. 😂

With today’s baking done, I can turn my mind to the next culinary adventure-attempting to get my entire turkey cooked. And regardless of the outcome of that endeavor, I’m looking forward to the post-turkey pie eating!

Pumpkin, Apples, Berries and Bean Juice

Today was our annual pie day. Pie day is usually a marathon pie making extravaganza in my mother’s kitchen, but COVID forced us to bake separately this year. Nevertheless, numerous pies still came into being today. My siblings and I all shared pics of our pies and my mom kept a running tally, just like she always does. Our contribution was eight pies-apple, raspberry, banana cream, lemon, lemon meringue, cranberry orange custard and two pumpkin. And only one of those pies was not safe for Matthew. More on that later.

Each of kids selected their favorite flavor of pie. Malia chose raspberry and except for some advice and help transferring the pie crust to the pie pan, she made the entire thing herself. My role was supervisory. I am so pleased that she has a desire to learn to cook and is becoming proficient. I admit that I’ve been a bit slow to teach her, but a lot of that is because her interest has been limited of late and I’m not willing to fight with her about it. But her desire to learn has started to reemerge and I’m really glad. Her pie is beautiful, and I’ll bet it tastes good too. 😉

While the creation of Malia’s pie was drama free, not so for the apple pie. I’m generally a careful cook, but I was a bit off my game where the apple pie is concerned. I made my own pie filling back in the fall, so once the crust was ready to go, I dumped in the filling. Unfortunately, I forgot to drain off the liquid so I could thicken it. I didn’t want to pour it out of the crust once it was in because that would make the crust on that edge more likely to scorch in the oven, so I called the turkey baster into action a day early and sucked the liquid out. I thickened it and then proceeded to assemble my pie. I got my top crust in place, perfectly vented and creatively crimped…and then looked over and realized that I had forgotten to put the thickened liquid back in. I didn’t want to destroy my beautiful crust by pulling it off to add the liquid, so I reached for the turkey baster’s smaller brother and used a medicine dropper to squirt it back in through the vent holes. I was as gentle as possible and tried to distribute the liquid as evenly as I could. At the end of the day, the pie looks pretty darn good despite all the trauma involved in its creation.

Daniel asked for lemon meringue pie, thinking that would be impossible to do Matthew friendly. But I’ve been cooking egg and dairy free for over a decade and in that time, I’ve seen a lot of different things. One of the egg substitutions that has started making its way around the internet in the past few years is using aquafaba, or the liquid from a can of beans, generally garbanzo beans (chickpeas). It’s something I’ve been wanting to try, but I’ve been holding off because Matthew can’t eat chickpeas. Because he is allergic to peas, there is a high risk of cross reactivity with chickpeas. And I couldn’t find any info on whether or not aquafaba from other varieties of beans would work the same. But I decided it was high time I just tried it out to see what would happen. I used the liquid from a can of great northern beans since they are light colored and mild in flavor, hoping it would work out the same. And guess what? It whips up just like egg whites. It’s so cool! It looks exactly the same, has the same gloss from the sugar and the same stiff peaks! The only thing I did differently was add a bit of zantham gum to help stabilize the meringue. Unfortunately, I waited a bit too long to get the meringue on the pie, so it lost some loft and doesn’t look as pretty as it did when it was freshly whipped. But still, egg free meringue is a reality in our lives! I can hardly wait to taste the pie tomorrow.

Now, about that one pie that is not safe for Matthew. The one he can’t eat is the cranberry orange custard. Egg free custard simply doesn’t have the same silky texture as an egg custard and this particular pie is Nathan’s favorite (one of my favorites too), so we used real dairy and eggs. Since Matthew has his favorite dairy free banana cream pie to look forward to, he doesn’t care a bit about the custard. And as always, Kev is a pumpkin pie man through and through.

I can hardly wait to cut into all these delights tomorrow. It will be a challenge to choose which one to taste first!