001 Yummy Yum Yum...

So yesterday was easter sunday and we went over to my boyfriends parents for dinner last night, and I took a strawberry pavlova for dessert. I wanted to take something that was nice and summer, nothing too heavy as I wasn't sure what else we where having to eat so pavlova seemed an obvious choice.

I have been making pavlova since I was old enough to hold an electric whisk, it has always been my mums dessert of choice for dinner parties in the early nineties and something that I fall back onto when I am too lazy to weigh out lots of ingredients.

So the ingredients are egg whites and caster sugar, in these proportions; 1 egg white to  2 ozs of caster sugar. Don't worry too much about the process and things going flat, a lot of people put a lot of hype into making merringue but it is all very simple. The equipment you need is:

• Large mixing bowl
• Electic hand whisk, or a kitchen aide type whisk.
• A large baking tray, preferably with edges I use a loose bottom flan tin as I find it easier to transfer to a serving plate that way.
• good non stick baking parchment, I use the reusable stuff from lakeland it is absolute magic.

The first step is to separate the eggs for a normal size pavlova to serve 4-6 people I use 4 egg whites. If you find seperating eggs difficult just gently break the whole egg into the bowl and lift out the yoke. Remember to keep the yokes and give making homemade mayonaise a go!

Once the eggs are separated use the electric mixer to whisk the eggs until the clear liquid turns white and foamy, you want to whisk until the eggs form stiff peaks (so when you switch the mixer off and lift out the the mixture it stands up on its own). it is very important that all the egg whites are the same even consistency so no clear runny whites at the bottom of the bowl.

Then you add the sugar, so for a 4 egg white pavlova I will have weighed out 8 ozs of sugar. I will add the sugar in two batches and make sure it is properly mixed in so probably whisk it for a couple of minutes. If the sugar isn't properly mixed in then it is not the end of the world it simply means that when cooked the meringue/pavlova will ooze a clear sweet syrup.

Then spatula the mixture into the middle of the lined tin and spread out a little, you don't want it like a cake this has now raising agent in it so it won't expand much in the oven. Remember to spread the mixture so it forms a little dip in the middle of the pavlova so you can easily add the topping later.

Then place in your oven at a low temperature, this is where all the error might occur in the process of meringue making. You simply want to dry out the mixture, not give it colour so I set my oven to 100oC and place the pavlova in the oven for 1 hour.

I then turn the oven off after the hour and leave the pavlova in there until it is cool.

If the oven is too hot is will cause the pavlova to colour and even worse it can start cooking which makes it go flat and chewy. A pavlova should be white can crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy like marshmallow on the inside. If you like a chewy marshmallow type pavlova that comes from leaving it to cool in the oven over night. I spent 3 years with a really old electric oven in my kitchen that simply would go low enough to make a good pavlova, in the end I had to give up and stop trying!

Once the pavlova is cool you can tore it for up to a week until you are ready to use it, in a cool place in an air tight container. If there is any moisture at all it will go soggy so don't put the topping on until you are ready to serve.

I will then whip up a 200-250ml carton of double cream until it forms soft peak. carefully place the cream on top of the pavlova and then add your toppings. You can use anything you what but my preference is summer berries, either a single berry type like the strawberry pavlova in the above picture or a mixture. But you can add anything... chocolate, kiwi, pineapple, crushed malteasers.. just remember you already have a very sweet pavlova base so fruit is good to keep the whole thing light and summery.

If you what to make meringue for Eton mess or Cranachan or another meringue based dessert then you may need to create smaller meringues. What you want to do is dry the mixture out the whole way through so it is all crisp, so keeping the oven as low as possible leave the merringues in for at least 3 hours depending on the size.

Good Luck with it and if you want any advice of tips email me on kate_about_town@yahoo.co.uk.

xoxo