Recipe: Berry Pavlova

I've never made Meringue before so I browsed the internet and my cookery books to find some inspiration. I've tried it out and adapted a couple of Recipes. I took a lot of inspiration from Ruby Tandoh Crumb book, that I reviewed on Tuesday, and adapted it too make it even sweeter for my sweet tooth! Finally, after a couple of experiments, I came up with this Recipe, for a deliciously sweet Pavlova..

 

You will need:

 

For the Meringue:

3 large eggs whites

150g Caster Sugar

 

(If you want to make a bigger Pavlova, follow the rule of 50g of sugar for each egg, but you'll need to adapt the quantity of filling and cooking time)

 

For the Filling:

300ml Double Cream

50g Caster Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

250g Fresh Berries

 

For the Sauce:

100g Berries

25g Caster Sugar

 

 

What to do:

 

1) Preheat the oven to 140⁰C/fan 120⁰C/Gas Mark 3 and line a baking tray with baking parchment

 

A couple of tbsp. at a time at the sugar to the whisked egg whites

 

2) In a large, sparkling clean, metal or glass bowl, whisk the eggs till they form a thick, white foam. Once the eggs are at this point add the sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Whisk for what feels like an eternity, but should actually only be about 7 minutes. The meringue needs to be thick and glossy, and when the whisk is removed slowly, small, stiff peaks should form

 

Create a dish out of the meringue on the baking parchment

 

3) Spoon the meringue onto the baking tray. You can make smaller individual piles of meringue for individual portions, or just spoon it all into one pile to make one larger pavlova. Spread the mixture to give a dish like effect to contain the fruit and cream mixture

 

4) Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes

 

Place the meringue on a serving plate before adding the filling

 

5) Leave the meringue to cool.

 

Just before serving...

 

6) Whisk the cream, sugar and vanilla essence until they form a thick whipped cream

 

7) For the sauce, in a food processer or hand blender, blitz the fruit and sugar to form a sauce. If you like it too me completely smooth run it through a sieve to get rid of the seeds

 

8) Move the meringue to a serving plate. I cut around the meringue, as it is really delicate so pulling the paper back from the meringue may cause it to break.

 

Pour the sauce over the pile of fruit and cream

 

9) Fill with cream, and top with fruit. Pour the sauce over. Serve.

 

Hope you like this and might give it a try.