Monday 10 December 2012

Pavlova

Is there anything that screams out Australia more than pavlova? I've not made a pavlova for almost the whole year (pavlova and / or lamingtons were on my list for Australia Day baking) as my last place just didn't inspire me to cook that much. Its also another one of those things where you can't really make a small pavlova (else you just end up with meringue) so the key is actually having people to eat it. Apparently in this case I was meant to pile up the mango on top instead of creating a jigsaw ... oops.



Anyway since we were feeding 5 people, one of which is mega pavlova fan, I thought it was high time to put into action:

  • The silicon baking mat. Ermahgerd (I think I heard some young person saying this so I'm adopting it ... is this a ridiculous way of writing omg?) ... I love how this is non stick and doesn't require the annoyance of baking paper!!!

  • My cake turntable, courtesy of Miss L. Icing cakes suddenly just became sooooo much easier.

  • New scrapers, courtesy of Miss L again (although I do love my palette knives still ... see the small collection below)

  • Convenience of egg whites in a tetrapak - see my post here




The other thing of course is that pavlova is another easy recipe with minimal ingredients - though I do suggest making this at least several hours ahead of time (or the night before) to allow time for the pavlova to cool down. Here's the one I used which is adapted from Stephanie Alexander:

Pavlova ingredients

  • 4 egg whites at room temperature (or 8 tablespoons of tetrapak egg whites or a combination)

  • Pinch of salt

  • 220g-ish castor sugar (recipe states 250g, but I tend to reduce this. Having said that don't reduce by too much, else the pav won't "set")

  • 2 teaspoons of cornflour

  • 1 teaspoon vinegar (recipe calls for white-wine vinegar but as I didn't have any I went for rice vinegar... it made no difference)

  • Spoon of vanilla


Topping is just whipped cream (a tub of whipping cream will more than suffice .. if you have a tendency to overwhip cream like I do, no panic as you can always pour in some milk and regain a nice whipped consistency) and whatever fruit you like. In my case, I had raspberries and mango. I think in my ideal pavlova world I'd have strawberries, passionfruit, mango, kiwi, banana... but alas its the middle of winter in the UK. Summer fruit fail.


Method

  1. Preheat to 180 degrees and put baking paper on a tray (or use a silicon mat if you have one).

  2. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form

  3. Gradually add in sugar and keep beating until stiff peaks form

  4. Add in cornflour, vinegar and vanilla and fold into the mix

  5. Put it on the baking tray in a circle (or whatever shape you want) and smooth sides and top with a palette knife or scraper.

  6. Put in oven and reduce heat to 150 degrees and bake for 30 min. Then reduce to 120 and cook for 45 min.

  7. Wait for it to cool then top with whipped cream and fruit.


Note to step 5: because my oven is really dodgy, even with an oven thermometer I wasn't able to calibrate the heat properly, and I'm totally bad at keeping time (but not bad enough for me to justify buying a kitchen timer since I just monitor the food more closely instead). Make sure you watch your pavlova so it doesn't burn on top; if its looking a bit too tanned turn the heat right down (or off if its been baking for awhile already) and just leave him in there until the oven cools down.



 

Happy eating everyone!

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