The Best Lemon Pie Filling Recipe - Our Wabi Sabi Life (2024)

FAQs

What is lemon filling made of? ›

Mix sugar and cornstarch together thoroughly. Combine the beaten egg, water, lemon juice and rind; add to dry ingredients. Cook in a double boiler about 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Add butter, beat well and cool before using.

Why Meringue Pies Weep. As it turns out, undercooking and overcooking can both cause weeping meringue and unwanted moisture on top of your pie (aka beading). Overcooking meringue causes those little sugary drops of moisture on top of baked meringues.

Lemon meringue pie is best eaten the day it's made, but leftovers will keep, loosely tented with aluminum foil and refrigerated, for up to 3 days. Never cover with plastic wrap—too much condensation will form under the wrapping. See below for a delicious Lemon Meringue Pie recipe. Enjoy!

It's likely your measurements were off and you either added too much lemon juice or not enough egg. You may not have heated the lemon curd to the proper temperature. Using a thermometer is a great way to ensure that you are cooking the egg to the point of thickening – 170 degrees F.

Citric acid is found naturally in citrus fruits, especially lemons and limes. It's what gives them their tart, sour taste.

If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

As the pie finishes baking in the oven, remove it when the meringue turns light brown. Removing the meringue before it has finished cooking can cause condensation. At the same time, don't overcook it, which can also cause weeping.

Adding Thickener

A thickener prevents the filling from being too watery by adding a substance that will absorb some of the liquid that seeps out of the fruit. A small amount of thickener should not alter the flavor of your pie. Use cornstarch as a thickener.

Very often flour or cornstarch is used, but in certain instances tapioca, arrowroot and potato starch can also help achieve the desired consistency. Tapioca starch is preferable for products that will be frozen because it will not break down when thawed. We like tapioca in blueberry, cherry or peach pies.

Pie Filling Enhancer thickens fruit pie fillings the same way Instant ClearJel does. Its advantage is added ascorbic acid (which adds a bright, tart note), and superfine sugar, which prevents it from clumping. Pie Filling Enhancer is about half sugar, so you'll want to reduce the sugar in your recipe accordingly.

Why put butter in pie filling? ›

A: Dotting the top of a fruit pie filling with butter is an old habit but one that is called for in only about half of the pie recipes out there. Some maintain that the butter is for taste; others claim that it helps the filling set up, particularly when using flour as a thickener.

If a pie contains eggs or dairy products, it should be stored in the refrigerator and not left out at room temperature for more than two hours. Pies that do not contain dairy products, such as fruit pies can be stored, loosely covered at room temperature for up to two days.

Generally speaking, yes, it is safe to buy food on its expiration date. Expiration dates have more to do with the food's overall quality and texture instead of when it is safe or not safe to eat. As long as there are no signs of spoilage, you can eat it, but it might not taste as fresh as it once was.

A lemon pie may become watery when put in the oven to brown the meringue, if it is left in the oven too long; or it may water because the filling was not sufficiently cooked before putting into the pastry shell, or it may be from an insufficiency of flour being used in making the filling.

Press the crust into the prepared pan and set it off to bake while you assemble the lemon filling. The lemon filling is a simple mixture of eggs, sugar, lemon zest (we love her), flour and cornstarch (to help set the curd), and a generous pour of fresh lemon juice. Whisk to combine. It's really that easy.

Make the filling: Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside. Whisk the water, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Lemon curd: it's creamy like a custard, but has that zing that only comes from a deliciously tart lemon.

For example, you can have a “natural” lemon flavor made from citral, which is a chemical found in lemon peel. You can also have an “artificial” lemon flavor made from citral, which is processed from petrochemicals. The only difference between these two chemicals is how they were synthesized.