One of my very best friend’s grandmother lives in New Zealand and comes to visit her family and friends in the states a few times per year. About 4 or 5 years ago when she was here, she pulled my friend and I into the kitchen to make a special New Zealand/Australian dessert called Pavlova. Before this I had never heard of Pavlova before. Basically, for those of you who also don’t know what it is, it’s a meringue-like cake that takes anywhere between 12 hours to make in order to allow it to completely harden properly.
I wrote each step down carefully as we went through them so I would always have it and so that Madison and I would be able to make it even when her grandmother ventured back to her side of the world. Truthfully, I have only made it once or twice since we all made it together and I wish I made it more often because it’s extremely pretty and undeniably delicious. Anytime I mention this dessert, no one knows what it is and in my opinion, it’s quite a shame . Everyone should know how to make it even if they don’t have the patience to.
A quick history on the dessert:
Pavlova was originally designed to be a tea dessert at the Hotel Esplanade in Perth of Western Australia by a chef named Herbert Sachse. It was named after the Russian ballerina, Anne Pavlova, during a meeting where Chef Sachse remarked that it was “as light as Pavlova” (referring to her dancing) who had been a guest of the hotel during her tour of 1929. Later in 1972, Sachse reported in a magazine interview that he had sought out to improve a meringue recipe that he originally saw in Women’s Mirror Magazine in 1935.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat your oven to 360 degrees.
- Beat 6 egg whites in a mixer at a medium speed until firm. I would suggest seperating whites and yolks in a seperate bowl and dumping each egg white into the mixer one by one to prevent wasting eggs if the yolks break.
- While beating the whites, add in your sugar 1 tbsp at a time.
- When you have finished adding your sugar, add your corn starch, still mixing.
- Keep the mixer on and continue beating, then add your white vinegar.
- Continue to beat the mix until it becomes firm.
- While the mixture continues to beat, place parchment paper on a baking sheet and draw a circle the size of a paper plate onto it with a pencil.
- Smoothly spread the mixture in the shape of the circle onto the parchment paper.
- Bake on 360 degrees for 5 minutes.
- Turn down the oven to 260 degrees and bake for 1 hour without removing the pavlova from the oven.
- When your timer has gone off after 1 hour, turn off the oven.
- Leave the pavlova in the oven to harden overnight for about 12-24 hours.
- DO NOT OPEN YOUR OVEN AFTER THE PAVLOVA HAS GONE IN TO BAKE. This is very important for the hardening process.
This process is quite lengthy and takes time to reach the proper consistency, so be patient and give it time before worrying that you’ve done something wrong!
- For toppings, I chose to use cool whip and fruit! We cut up a pomegranate because the grocery store rarely has them and I came across some this week! I also picked up some strawberries!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- 6 egg whites
- 1 1/2 cups of white sugar
- 2 tsp corn starch
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- Parchment paper
TOPPING:
- 1 tub of Cool Whip
- 6 Strawberries
- 1 Pomegranate
I have been wanting to make a post about this for some time now and I am so glad that I’ve been able to share this with everyone! If any of you make this wonderful dessert, please tag me on instagram or send it via direct message on there! Unfortunately my comment sections on this website doesn’t allow photos to be dropped, so Instagram is my only way to connect and see your beautiful creations!
Abbvocado 