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

FAQs

What is lemon pie filling made of? ›

Lemon Meringue Pie Ingredients

For the filling: white sugar, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, salt, water, lemons, butter, and beaten egg yolks.

Water seeping from meringue is practically always coming from the egg whites. There are a few standard things you can do to reduce it. First, do not overbeat. For some reason, recipes love to direct people to beat egg whites "to stiff peaks".

The watery layer between the meringue and the filling (weeping) is usually caused by undercooking. This is where it is important to put your meringue onto hot filling so it can begin cooking right away.

Lemon juice is added to apple crisp and apple pie filling to keep the apple pieces from turning brown.

For a lemon filling that's glossy and translucent, and firm enough to cut yet melts in your mouth, cornstarch is the thickener of choice.

Cornstarch. Cornstarch is a super-effective thickener that doesn't need much time to cook, although it does require high temperatures to activate. To avoid clumps, mix cornstarch with sugar before adding it to your filling.

Make Sure the Pie Filling Is Hot

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.

If your pie filling is runny, add in one additional tablespoon of cornstarch to the lemon filling, and stir over medium heat. It should thicken in 1 to 2 minutes.

Once the tart is out of the oven, it is imperative that you allow it to cool completely in its pan before removing it. Neglecting to do so, as Zestful Kitchen explains, will result in cracking as the tart is still too warm at this stage to have set completely.

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.

Can lemon meringue pie be left out overnight? ›

Avoid storing the pie outside of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours. Once you've served a few slices of the pie, return the remaining pieces to the refrigerator to prevent bacteria growth. Never leave the pie sitting at room temperature for long periods of time.

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.

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.

Some common techniques are to include natural lemon juice, lemon zest, or even lemon pulp to add or boost lemon flavor. Other options for adding lemon into your flavor profile include the use of natural and artificial flavors.

Directions. In a saucepan over medium heat mix the white sugar, flour, orange juice, orange zest, lemon juice and the egg. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool completely before folding in the whipped cream.

Creamy Lemon Pie Filling

We have the sweetened condensed milk to thank for that. It's actually adapted from my oatmeal lemon crumble bars filling, but we also add egg yolks here for structure and fresh lemon juice for flavor. That's it—only 3 basic ingredients that have big jobs to do.

Adding the butter after the cooked eggs, juice and sugar have cooled significantly is what sets lemon cream apart from lemon curd, in which everything is cooked together. The flavor is quite similar, but the textures of the two couldn't be less alike.

Fruit, sugar, cornstarch, acid, extras. These are the only things you need to remember to turn out a perfect pie filling.