Summer Citrus Series: Lemon Meringue Pie Observations

I love tart foods. I especially love tart desserts. The combination of the sweet and tart flavors give the dish such dimension. So, it seemed like a no brainer that my first blog post would be about lemon meringue pie. My favorite lemon curd recipe can be found in, The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard. (Unrelated to this post The Secrets of Baking is a great comprehensive cookbook for bakers at every level.) It is a stellar recipe. The curd is supper tart and flavorful. It was the obvious choice for my pie. I suppose it was ignorant of me to assume that because I enjoy this recipe so much it would work in a pie. When the pie was finished, I discovered that although the flavor was great the texture of the curd was too soft/loose for me. This started my search for lemon meringue pie recipes. I had no idea that I would struggle when trying to find the right type of lemon curd for my pie. After reviewing about six recipes I choose a version in The Pie And Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Her recipe uses cornstarch to create the viscosity/firmness of the curd. When the pie was finished, I loved that the curd had a firmer texture but it wasn’t as tart as my favorite. Since I liked the addition of cornstarch to the lemon curd in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s recipe and I loved the flavor and tartness from Sherry Yard’s recipe. I made the decision to make a hybrid of the two.

After settling on the path that I wanted to take, I had to figure out how to make my idea a reality. I compared all the ingredients to determine what parts from each recipe that I wanted to use. The first hurdle was one recipe uses only egg yolks and the other a combo of yolks and whole eggs. I decided to use the combo of yolks and whole eggs simply for frugality. I would need the exact number of egg whites’ leftover from the SY’s recipe for the meringue topping the pie. SY’s recipe calls for less sugar, more zest and more citrus juice than RLB’s. As I already stated I love tart foods. So, once again I choice SY’s recipe. The difference in the amounts of butter used to finish the curd in both recipes was only one tablespoon. RLB’s recipe uses 3 tablespoons and SY’s 4 tablespoons. Seeing as I choose to use so many elements from SY’s curd recipe, I thought that the larger amount of butter was the better choice. Finally, I had to figure out how much cornstarch to incorporate into SY’s recipe. RLB’s recipe uses ½ cup plus ½ tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) cornstarch. I knew that was too much to add to SY’s version because hers’ has more stabilizers (eggs by weight) than RLB’s. I made the decision to initially use half the amount of the cornstarch (¼ cup plus ¾ teaspoon) in the hybrid recipe. Depending upon the results of this decision I would be able to determine if this amount of cornstarch was too much, just right or too little for my ideal curd. I was feeling very optimistic about this plan of attack.

I knew that even though I felt confident about my recipe changes that baking at its’ core is about chemistry. Since I was essentially making one addition to a successful recipe, I had to examine the properties of all the ingredients to ensure that my hybrid was successful as well. RLB activates the cornstarch (by mixing in water and a portion of the sugar to make a slurry and heating), then tempers the egg yolks with some of the cornstarch mixture and finally adds the citrus juice and zest as the last step. This is because citrus juice and oil could interfere with the cornstarch causing it to not react (thicken) properly. SY combines the juice, zest and sugar until the sugar dissolves then the eggs are added and the entire concoction is cooked to 160 degrees over a double boiler to ensure that the eggs don’t become overcooked. So, I decided to make the slurry i.e. activate the cornstarch over a double boiler then combine the remaining sugar with the zest and juice, after the sugar is dissolved add in the eggs and cook the mixture over the double boiler until the eggs reach a safe temperature. Once the mixture is cool enough I would fill the pie shell and bake the pie until the curd is set. Although I had never tried this with lemon curd before a similar method is generally used with fruit pies like blueberry or cherry. I hoped that I would be lucky and my first attempt would be successful.

So, without further ado here are my hybrid recipe results. The recipe additions didn’t make any major changes to the prep or cooking time. The texture and appearance of the curd wasn’t different from the original version. The flavor was the same as the original curd. I was pleased to discover that the small addition of cornstarch to the curd was just what I needed to make the curd perfect for the pie. It was firm enough to hold its shape when cut into slices, but not too firm to negatively influence the mouth feel of the pie. However, the experiment went so well that I began to wonder if the ¼ cup plus ¾ teaspoon cornstarch was the largest amount that I could add to the curd successfully. If I added the full ½ cup plus ½ tablespoon cornstarch to the lemon curd would I prefer the results? Since I had the ingredients on hand, I decided to make another pie to see what the difference would be between the two curds. The prep time was pretty much the same as it was with the first curd. There was a marked difference in the cooking time. The curd reached 160 degrees in half the time. The texture of the curd was thicker, which was to be expected. There was no change in the flavor of the curd. Like the first curd the appearance was the same as the original curd. I was really surprised, once the pie was finished, to discover that I preferred the curd with the increase of cornstarch the most. The combination of the pie crust, the improved curd and the meringue created my quintessential lemon meringue pie. I didn’t know what to expect when I started this experiment, but I can now say it was extremely satisfying, informative and enjoyable. In the end, I was really pleased with the results. Remember, if a recipe doesn’t work for you it’s just a general guideline. Don’t be afraid to experiment to make the recipe work for you.

Later days

#Lemon #Pie