Nutmeg-Maple Cream Pie w Brown Sugar Meringue: What do you think?
I'm going to do this Nutmeg-Maple Cream Pie for Thanksgiving dinner. http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/11/nut... I'm thinking of adding a meringue to use up some of the quart or so of egg whites I'll have left over from this and the ice cream I'm also making.
How do you think a meringue will go with this pie?
Ever heard of making meringue with brown sugar?
Do you think that would muddy the maple flavor or enhance it?
By rainey
on Nov 22, 2009 12:50 PM
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I think I'm coming to your house! I love meringue on anything, so it sounds delicious to me. I've never had it made with brown sugar on a pie, but I've had brown sugar meringue cookies and they were pretty good...so I'd imagine it's possible.
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Thank you but I'm not entirely convinced myself that it's a good idea. I've never tried the original recipe so it's not clear how to monkey with it.
I suppose I could hedge my bet and use half granulated and half brown sugar. And then if the meringue isn't a positive addition it would be easy enough to push it aside and just eat the custard filling.
The thing is, it's the maple flavor that attracts me to the concept. I don't want to compete with it or overwhelm it.
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I think in this one case I wouldn't do that, rainey (use the brown sugar in the meringue, I mean). Good quality maple syrup has that caramelly undernote to it, anyway, and is strong enough to stand alone and should be allowed to stand alone, in my opinion. I think it benefits from simplicity. I also think one can overdo the sweetness, and maple syrup can do that just on its own if not treated deftly. Then one adds the molasses of the brown sugar and--I just don't know.
The nutmeg will enhance the maple and if you want to build on that, you might go with a contrasting note such as the heat you'd find in cinnamon or ginger. Could one of those be used effectively in meringue? Certainly you can use one of them in a whipped cream.
Another option--if you just stick with the maple and nutmeg flavors, I have a recipe for a nutmeg sauce that could probably be worked into the meringue or whipping cream.
Or one other direction--a sherry whipped cream. Sherry works nicely with maple and the heat behind the alcohol would also help to control the sweetness of the maple syrup.
Sounds like a delicious pie, though! What are you planning to do for the crust?
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Yes. Those are my concerns too.
Maybe I'll just abandon the idea of the meringue and make a whipped cream. I can always make an angel food cake after Thanksgiving.
Here is the suggested pastry: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/din...
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That looks lovely. I think if you do go with the European butter, that will add more to the richness (obviously), but also contribute another (slight) flavor. Just saying that because I find European butter (which I love) to be less neutral than ours.
Mind you; it's painful for me to suggest "think about skipping the meringue". I love the stuff and have been craving it lately, for some reason. Diving straight into a tub of it would be heaven. I just always find that the syrup does well with something to cut its abundance, rather than compound it.
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I would go for it; beat the egg whites with half the granulated sugar then fold in the brown sugar at the end. I even made a sweet potato meringue for a pie which came out delicious!
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No kidding?! Sweet potato didn't weigh the meringue down?
Could you describe the results. It sounds so interesting.
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What was the pie filling, Cheryl? Also sweet potato?
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I was hoping to hear more about this pie too.
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I did a search on "sweet potato meringue" only, without including the word "pie". But everything that came back seems to be a sweet potato pie with a meringue topping, and that doesn't seem to be what Cheryl is describing.
I know it's only a matter of folding beaten egg whites into sweet potatoes, but I'm wondering what the proportions would be and so on. Hopefully she'll be back sooner or later to enlighten us.
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Whipped cream sounds better than the meringue--and I LOVE meringue. Maybe a little maple syrup into the cream and some nutmeg and vanilla will suffice fine. I know cinnamon was suggested, but cinnamon is used like toilet paper at a public arena!! Maybe the vanilla would be better!
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LOL re the cinnamon-toilet paper analogy. How appetizing! ;-D You're right, though.
Mmmmm....whipped cream with maple syrup and freshly grated nutmeg. Worth doing a dessert just around *that*, jarona.
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I'm going to do it naked and make an angel food cake after Thansgiving. I've got two flavors of ice cream if anyone wants it with the pie. And I make a huge bowl of whipped cream and let people serve themselves with it for anything they like.
But I think sometime between now and Christmas I'm going to experiment with brown sugar meringue. Maybe on a pumpkin pie with a more assertive flavor of it's own.
Meanwhile, thanks, everyone, for your thoughts.
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I think this pie will be a hit no matter *what* you serve it with, and the ice cream and whipped cream plan sounds good.
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For anyone keeping score, we had this pie for Thanksgiving. It was excellent and it will now be a permanent part of our holiday menu.
I made it without the meringue. Over dinner I asked for opinions and we were equally divided about whether we would have liked it better with or without a conventional meringue. The brown sugar meringue I proposed in the original post would definitely have competed with the lovely maple flavor.
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TY for the follow-up, rainey. I'm interested in trying this over the holidays.
If you think now that brown sugar meringue would compete with the maple, then for those who might like to try it with meringue do I take it you'd suggested plain meringue?
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Yes, a conventional granulated sugar meringue. I'm also thinking that just the cream filling could be served as pots de crème without the pastry.
It's really very tasty. I hope you enjoy it.
Adding, FYI, my custard was considerably darker than that pictured at Smitten Kitchen's site. Could be the grade of the syrups. Could be that I reduced mine more. I dunno but it was still attractive and yummy.
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