Cooking For Engineers

[natifer]

Everytime I make coconut cream pie or chocolate cream pie with a meringue topping I have a syrupy liquid in the bottom of the pie plate. I thought that maybe it was the meringue weeping, but I don't have problems with syrup on the top of the merigue. As soon as pull out the first piece of pie the hole left fills with a clear syrup. I live in Turkey and the sugar here is a little coarser, but I don't know if that is the problem or not. I am pricking my pie crust and baking it, filling it with hot pie filling, then topping with meringue and baking. Can anyone give me any tips on how to avoid the syrup. Even after the pie has cooled it still does it. After refrigeration it isn't as bad. My mom and grandmother never refrigerated their pies after baking...just let them cool and cut them. Later before they went to bed at night they would stick the leftovers in the refrigerator. Any ideas?

[Pickles]

ya know, I would hazard a guess that the cream is being over beaten cause the cream to separate just a little.

Try beating the cream just a little less and see if that helps

[Taamar]

If it's only happening when you use meringue, you need to make a more stable meringue (your coarse sugar may well be the culprit). I can't search the recipe right now (at work) but google 'Meringue corn starch' for one that has cooked cornstarch paste folded in. If that doesn't work, try an italian meringue made by whipping hot sugar syrup into the whites (again, you'll have to google it yourself).

[Guest]

I had that same problem and googled it. Martha Stewart's site recommended gently heating the meringue just a bit as you made it - like over a hot water bath. It was supposed to stabilize it more. I think the corn starch idea may work as well, but I didn't like the idea of corn starch in my meringue.

I tried it and it worked for me. Just get the egg whites slightly warm, not warm enough to cook them.