Why is my meringue soft, moist and discoloured? There is a similar question to this, but without a recipe and no satisfactory answer...

I used 3 egg whites with pristine metal utensils. Absolutely no moisture, fats, etc. 

Whisked slow, medium, fast, evenly spaced timing over 5 minutes.

Towards the end, around 4 minutes, started adding tablespoons of icing sugar and letting them whisk in. 

Continued whisking for a further 2 minutes once all mixed.

Beautiful texture and gloss. Stiff and awesome. 

Preheated oven to 100c, spread meringue out for a pavlova. 

In the centre of the fan assisted oven on 100c for 2 hrs 10 mins. Turned off and sat until cold (over night and it was actually 5 hrs.)

The first 2 times I did this I got perfect results. Couldn’t wish for better. (First time I used granulated caster sugar, second was with icing sugar which gave a better texture.)

The next time I made 2 pavlova bases and put them in at the same time. Shelves were close together but still centred.

Exact same ingredients, conditions, etc. 

This time they came out fluffy, like bread on the inside. Moist to the touch. Stuck to the baking paper. Most worryingly they were a discoloured orange on the outside.

I have now made another at the end of the day, but only one this time. It has turned out the same:





What makes a meringue stay moist? What makes it discolour? Is there anything I should look at considering that I did exactly the same thing each time?
One thing that can affect meringues is humidity. I find that I have to bake them at nearly twice as long in the summer to get them to dry out completely.