Chocolate Meringue Pie

This pie is perhaps most responsible for this project. It’s my mom’s favorite. She’d make herself one for her birthday. As an adult, I started making it for her birthday, and quickly realized how little I understand about meringues. They’d weep, or worse, form a slick layer of syrup between it and the filling. Every website and cookbook had a different fix.

But it’s also where I stepped back and looked at what the recipe told me to do and realized “Hey, you have a culinary education. Don’t be a shoemaker and think about what you’re doing.” The original had enough cornstarch to thicken four pies, a double boiler, and the baker standing on one foot for five minutes. It was nowhere near as simple as it should be. All you’re making is chocolate pastry cream. It takes one pot, two bowls, stirring, and about fifteen minutes.

Post-Bake Thoughts

So close! In the mixer the meringue was gorgeous… But, I tried piping it onto the hot filling. It came out flat and lost the flexibility to form nice peaks. It raises the questions of do you under-mix a meringue for piping? Or do I go back to spooning meringue onto the filling like a normal person? Research is needed… As soon as I can find my books.

Overall though? Pretty damn perfect. The meringue didn’t shrink. It didn’t have a layer of syrup between it and the filling. In consistency and sweetness, the chocolate cream was just right. But yeah, you can see from the photos I was impatient and cut a slice before it had set. Oh well! A messy slice of pie is still pie! (After an overnight in the fridge, the filling had set and the slices were picture perfect.)

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