I told my sister I always wanted to try making a pavlova but meringue. In Hawaii. Sounded like a recipe for disaster or, at the very least, a whole lot of frustration. We made a pavlova together in Seattle and it was so yummy that I had to try it again. Last week the weather was so perfectly cool and dry. Of course, today was not. But we have air conditioning now! We cranked it up and I got to work.
Today's cast minus the strawberries and blueberries who were hanging out in the fridge.
I traced a plate to make a 9" circle on some parchment paper.
I lightly oiled the baking sheet so the parchment would lie stick to it--make sure you don't get any oil on the meringue side of the parchment!
Two teaspoons of corn starch were mixed with two teaspoons of white vinegar. Adding this to the meringue before baking helps to stabilize it.
Four egg whites went into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid.
I love watching the whites change. Here's the foamy stage.
Starting to look white and silky.
When it gets like "cloud" according to Mary Berry, start adding the sugar.
It's important to add the sugar a little at a time so it gets fully incorporated and dissolves.
Give it a good beat after the last of the sugar is added.
I added the corn starch/vinegar mixture and used the whisk to incorporate it. Nice stiff peaks!
I dolloped the meringue onto the prepared parchment.
Then I used an offset spatula to spread the meringue to the edges of the circle while creating an indented middle.
The oven preheated at 320F but as soon as the meringue went in, I dropped the temperature to 300F and left it in for an hour. Now, once the meringue is finished cooking, it must stay in the turned off ovcn until it cools. My sister suggested leaving it in there until I was ready to fill it so it ended up staying in the closed oven for about 5 hours.
The fruit were so beautiful, they needed their own photos.
The turtles would be so envious if they knew.
I whipped up some heavy cream.
I love watching cream change during the whipping process, too.
Despite its slow cooling, the meringue had cracked a bit. Oh well.
I spread the cream in the well.
The fruit came next--so pretty!
It's funny that it can be cut in pretty neat slices--except where the meringue had cracked. The guys really enjoyed it. Eric said it was a treat and Tom commented that he liked the way the meringue melted in the mouth. Chris called it hard cotton candy! We all agreed that we would have liked more cream than the recipe called for; it seems the meringue to cream ratio was quite a bit in favor of the meringue! The best thing is now I know that pavlova in Hawaii is possible!
Here's the promised link:
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