Bake With Beaut.ie - Pavlova

It's the last of our Bake With Beaut.ie series. Awww. Thanks to our baking Goddess Rosanne from Like Mam Used to Bake and her gorgeous recipes we've gorged on beautiful baked goods over the past few weeks. Last week we tried soda bread, read all about it here. Today, let's have a feast with everyone's favorite dessert, it's Pavlova!

Pavlova has become a bit of a running joke with one of my friends. I bake Pavlova a lot. We’re talking almost weekly at this stage. It is my go to dessert when we have people over for dinner, for two reasons. It is super quick and easy to mix up, I’m talking less than 10 minutes, and it is a huge crowd pleaser. I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t like it.

If I bake dessert at the weekend Mr. LMUTB will request this nine times out of ten. I also like to tell myself that as it is just whipped egg whites with a bit of sugar thrown in that it is practically a super food. This may not be an actual true scientific fact though. In the summer I like to pile it high with all manner of berry, and in the winter I like to add a sneaky drop of liqueur to the cream before piling on some chocolate sweets.

Ingredients

(serves 6-8)

5 large egg whites

200g caster sugar

2tsp corn flour

1tsp distilled vinegar

To serve:

Whipped cream

Selection of seasonal fruit

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Using an electric hand-held whisk/stand-alone electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, i.e. if you pull a little of the mixture up with the whisk it will hold its shape for a few seconds.

Gradually add in the sugar, mixing continuously until stiff and glossy in appearance. At this stage the mixture is done but I like to whisk for an extra couple of minutes until quite stiff as I find it yields a lovely chewy marshmallow-like inside.

Add the corn flour and vinegar and fold into the mixture.

Spoon onto the prepared baking sheet in one large round, or put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe individual portions. You may need a second baking sheet if doing individual portions as the mixture will yield 8 meringues.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Once cooked turn the oven off but leave the meringue in the warm oven for a further 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

When ready to serve spoon the whipped cream over the top followed by the fruit.

Why not make our mouths water with your own pavlovas and send us a tweet to @beaut.ie! And let us know, have you enjoyed baking with Beaut.ie and Rosanne?