Pavlova

The first time I heard about this dessert was in a Mills and boon novel set in Australia. The heroine in the book, like all the M&B heroines was an excellent cook and she baked Pavlovas for a dinner party. I was mesmerized by the description in the book, it said something about them being light, airy, fluffy, melt in the mouth etc. This name stuck in my head, and last year i looked it up on my birthday and made it for the first time. It was better than I had imagined in my head and was true to its description I read in the book and online.

I love it as it is super simple, very unique, requires very few ingredients. You can make it using a hand mixer, you don't need very fancy equipment.

I followed recipe from the blog, the kitchn: Pavlova recipe.

Ingredients:
Pavlova Shell/ 8 Mini Shells

1. 4 egg whites
2. 1 cup granulated sugar
3. 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
4. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5. 1 teaspoon white vinegar                           

 Topping: 

Whipped Cream and fresh fruit

Method

Preheat the oven at 275 deg F. Mix sugar with corn starch in a bowl. Eggs should be room temperature.

Take the egg whites in a mixing bowl, add the vinegar. Mixing bowl should be very clean else the egg whites will not rise, there should not be any grease on whip or bowl. Wipe the bowl with vinegar to be doubly sure that its clean.

Once the egg whites start to foam, add a tablespoon of sugar- corn starch mix, and continue whipping the egg whites. Slowly add rest of the mix as you continue whipping in small increments.

Continue whipping...

Whip the egg whites till you see stiff shiny peaks (approximately 25-30 minutes), You should be able to scoop it up in a spoon almost like soft butter. the time taken depends on quantity, so if you haven't whipped eggs before, its good to see a few you tube videos to see how to whip egg whites correctly.

I made these from 6 egg whites, which resulted in 14 shells, as you see        some are bigger than the others. I used foil instead of parchment paper          as I didn't have parchment paper at home. if you are using parchment            paper you can draw circles on reverse side to have same sized shells. I          scooped the meringue with a spoon and smoothened it out and made an        indentation in center create a space to fill in the whipped cream and              fruit.

 Bake on 250 F for 1.5 hours (reduce the temperature from 275 to 250 F)      the shells should be crisp to touch on the outside, after one and half              hour, shut down the oven and keep the door ajar, let the pavlovas cool          down inside the oven. 

Once they have cooled, they can stored in air tight container           for a few days. One of several things I love about them

Assemble at the time of eating with some whipped cream and         mixed fruits. Enjoy :)










Printable Version: Pavlova Printable recipe