Apple Cider Meringue
Egg whites, sugar and fresh apple cider whipped into a giant cloud for the silkiest most lush pie topping ever. Sweetened with cinnamon and fresh vanilla beans this is pumpkin pie's best friend.
The best pumpkin pie topping is this apple cider meringue. Made via the italian meringue method (boiling liquid & sugar to the candy point) and whipped to a gorgeous billowing fluff, it tastes of spices, brown sugar and a toasty marshmallow. It’s great on pumpkin pie but also sweet potato, a cranberry tart, anything that’s not already overly sweet (looking at you pecan pie) and could do with a toasted mallow top.
Goodbye whipped cream & ice cream!
Recipe Origins
I first saw the technique of using a candied sugar & juice here at Saveur to make a meringue. This opened up a world of possibilities – bland meringues be gone! It’s cider sweet but also a bit tart. Some cinnamon and vanilla round out a lovely seasonal taste. It’s INCREDIBLY fluffy. You won’t have to worry about any grainy bits because the sugar is melted before it’s added to the egg whites. It’s like a giant marshmallow but BETTER… and ok – it may be the meringue form of these and that’s no bad thing. I made it to top our thanksgiving pumpkin pie and honestly, I can’t see myself making anything else for a pie from here on.
Recipe Ingredients
Apple Cider: fresh unfiltered apple juice (not apple cider vinegar!)
Sugar: fine granulated sugar, or a mix of brown sugar and fine granulated (half of each)
Vanilla: pure vanilla paste or the scrapings of a fresh vanilla bean
Sea salt: fine sea salt (use half if using table salt)
How to make Apple Cider Meringue
In a pot, combine the cider and sugar
Set over medium heat, and clip a candy thermometer to the pot (alternatively, keep a laser thermometer nearby, to check it often)
When the liquid reaches 250 F, remove from heat and pour into a heat safe jar
Set the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and affix the whisk attachment
Begin whipping, and once frothy, start pouring in the hot liquid
When the mix starts to look like a thick, marshmallow fluff, add the vanilla and spices
Whip until you have stiff peaks – when you turn the whisk upside down it won’t droop meringue
Pile onto your chosen pie and smooth it out into pretty swoops
Toast the top of the with a kitchen torch
Notes
- A candy thermometer is essential here, it takes the guesswork out of knowing when the sugar has reached soft ball stage. Here is the one I have.
- Modify the spices to your taste, adding more cinnamon, maybe some nutmeg and ginger too if you like. The spices are added toward the end so you’ll add them while the meringue is whisking, keep tasting to see where you like it.
- I find egg whites easier to whip at room temperature but easier to separate from the yolks when cold. An hour before you plan to make the meringue, separate the whites and yolks and leave the whites at room temperature.
- Leftover yolks? Here’s one of my most popular cookie recipes from the blog you can make!
- Absolutely yes torch this (either with a kitchen torch or in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes) for a toasty, marshmallowy taste.
- This can be made ahead of time – up to 24 hours, store in the fridge, uncovered.
Recipe for Apple Cider Meringue
Apple Cider Meringue
Ingredients
- 4 large egg whites
- 200g or 1 cup sugar (or half brown sugar half fine granulated)
- 120g or ½ cup fresh apple cider preferably honeycrisp cider
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- seeds of 1 scraped vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or paste
Method
- In a small saucepan, begin cooking the sugar and cider on medium high. Clip a candy thermometer to the pot.
- Meanwhile, begin whipping the egg whites in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
- When the sugar reaches 250, remove it from heat and pour into heatproof container (like a mason jar).
- When egg whites are starting to form soft peaks, pour in the sugar mixture while the mixer whips.
- Add cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.
- Continue whipping until you have stiff peaks, ie. when you lift the whisk, the meringue should hold its shape.
- Immediately spread (or pile!) onto pie. Place in the fridge to just set. Toast with a kitchen torch before serving.
Notes
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Do you have to toast the meringue or will it be tasty without. I don’t have a torch but this looks amazing!!
you don’t but it makes it soooo much better! torches are available online for around $10 so if you think you’d want to make meringues more, it’s a great tool to have.
I had no idea you could make the syrup for meringues from anything other than sugar and water! Would this work with other juices too? Like lemon, for a super-tangy meringue, or beetroot for the color?
Boiled lemon juice is actually pretty awful (I know this from attempting lemon marshmallows, lol) but it can work with other juices like cranberry (pure cranberry, nothing else added) will make a lovely tart meringue pie topping like I did on this blueberry cranberry meringue pie. You might also be interested in my pomegranate meringue bars and raspberry meringue bars.
I meant 240 degrees
Incredible! I only got my sugar and cider to heat up to 235 according to my candy thermometer. If just wanted to boil over and would never get hotter than that. But it totally worked! I put on top of pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust. I torched the top and put in fridge for two hours before serving. Total crowd pleaser. Thx so much. I’ll be making this again for sure.
Can you please give me an example of a couple Apple cider’s that you would approve of for this recipe? I’m struggling and don’t want to get the wrong thing.
I personally like Red Jacket’s Honeycrisp apple cider, but their original is good too. Most grocery stores will carry Country Acres or their own brand name. If there’s an apple orchard in your area or a farmer’s market they’ll likely have something local which will be lovely. What you are looking for is an unfiltered apple juice, in the ingredients it will simply say “apple” nothing else.
Yum! This was absolutely delicious, and it looks super impressive piled on a pie. If you have only one regular size pie, the recipe as written is more than plenty. I did 1.5 because I had egg whites leftover from another recipe, but it was starting to look ridiculously high and wouldn’t all fit. No worries though, eating straight from the bowl with a spoon was not a bad way to kick of Thanksgiving. It was a bit hit with everyone!
I made this meringue twice this month! It’s a real crowd pleaser on Costco’s larger than life pumpkin pie! Also found it delightful alongside a cranberry curd tart. The 1.5x recipe is a lot but man is it worth it!
This was incredible! The flavor was amazing and complemented my pumpkin pie perfectly. I noticed after a few hours the meringue started to droop and got watery, I’m thinking either I incorporated the syrup too quickly or didn’t whip enough. Any feedback is appreciated. Will definitely make again!
I’ve made this a few times already and I LOVE it! Yes, more elbow grease than just whipping up some cream, but the taste, visual dynamic and shelf-stability of it make is very much worth the extra steps. PLUS (as I discovered after my own impatience/lack of time management resulted in the age-old cracked pumpkin pie filling issue from not cooling it slowly enough one time) this topping is pure magic for filling those crevices in and covering the ugliness with a thing of beauty.
This is my favourite pie topping to make – an absolute show stopper.
Had some boiled cider and egg whites that needed to get used up, so I decided to try my hand at this recipe — it is so delicious! I diluted my boiled cider back to regular cider consistency (since I reduced it myself, I knew how much water needed to be added back in), and it worked great. Since I didn’t have a pie or other dessert to top with the meringue, I baked it into cookies, following the instructions on the Oreo meringue cookie recipe. The texture of the cookies didn’t come out quite right – a little tacky on the outside, and the middle became gummy when I ate it – but I’m not convinced the issue wasn’t my oven and/or the fact that it was stupid humid that day. I will have do some more reading on meringue cookies and try again!
Totally dreamy meringue! I used it to top a pumpkin pie and even torched the top to make it all toasty.
I would recommend using a medium sized sauce pan. My small one was too small for lowball stage and I had to do a little bit of sugar cleanup on my stove.
I second this comment! I recommend 2-2.5 QT for this recipe. I used a 2QT pan and was oh so close to having to having a sugar mess on my stove. However, much bigger than that and the bulb of the candy thermometer would likely not submerge far enough into the syrup.
Made this for Thanksgiving . Amazing!!! Everyone loved it and we’ll definitely be making it again.
Absolutely fantastic meringue, made it again this Thanksgiving, comes out stellar every time.
I made this to top a phyllo dough 5 spice pumpkin pie (Martha Stewart) and it was absolutely delicious. I made it just like the recipe above but I think when I make it again I’ll add more spice like suggested in the cooks notes. Mine was a touch sweet most likely because my cider was too sweet. Pick a good spiced cider! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
This meringue is a dream! I used on my
Spiced pumpkin pie this year and it was a hit! It’s so smooth and creamy and not too sweet- the most subtle apple flavor! Cannot wait to try it again!!!
Oh man! It’s. Just. So. Good.
I was intimidated for my first meringue but the steps were simple and clear. And it is just fluffy fall-time goodness.
Took it slow and piped pillow-y spirals on mini pumpkin pies.
Make this meringue! Delicious, pillowy, fall goodness. Took me like 10 minutes from start to finish. I actually didn’t take mine to 250, I took it to about 240 bc that’s what my candy thermometer had listed for softball stage and it worked beautifully. Great was to fancy up a store bought pie.
Looks incredible! How long in advance can this be made and can you brown it with a torch?
What sort of apple cider are you using? Cloudy apple or alcoholic cider?
This was a showstopper! I made the apple crumb pie recipe from the Pie and Pastry Bible, topped the pie with the meringue straight from the oven, put it back in and baked it for 5 minutes before broiling it for less than a minute to crisp it up. The combination of apple pie, a layer of crunchy nut/crumb topping and then this meringue may be the best thing I have ever made or eaten!!
Shoutout to Molly above for giving me the idea to make an apple crumb pie; I had leftover apples and the crunchy crumb + pillowy meringue sounded like a delightful pairing.
THIS MERINGE IS SO TASTY. Whisk-lickin good—it was like eating an apple cider marshmallow
For sure making this again, it is indeed such a showstopper.
Could you use boiled apple cider here? Would that equal and stronger flavour? Mine is already boiled down!
It would be too strong. Also the consistency wouldn’t work since it’s so thick. BUT, there’s lots of reduced cider recipes on the site =)
Hi, what is the pie it is on here pictured? that crust looks perfect for it. Do you have the recipe for that anywhere ? ta!
Hi! At what temp do you add the apple cider syrup into the meringue?
While the syrup is cooking I begin whipping the whites, I’ll stop when they are frothy and once the syrup is done turn the mixer on again and slowly pour it in as it whips.
Thank you!! But how do you know when to pour the mixture into the egg whites? You say to let it cool down in the glass jar, but to what temperature does the syrup need to be to add into the egg whites? I’m scared if it’s too warm it’ll cook the whites 🙁
Ah!! Thank you. That makes sense, I’m sorry. I thought it needed to cool in the jar to a certain temp… I’ll see myself out 🤦🏼♀️ Can’t wait to try this!
Genius. It’s auch a simple idea – replace sugar and water with apple cider, but of course it came from you.
If you haven’t tried this yet, you should. I used it to top a cranberry tart and it was divine.
This paired with a cranberry tart sounds like the absolute perfect pie. Thanks Danielle!
This sounds amazing! Can it be made into cookies?
yes! you’d bake them like you would meringue cookies (low oven temp, longer period)