Sweet Saturday Recipe: Pavlova Perfection

Recently we met the lovely Catherine and Suzanne from Boutique Bake and they have been sharing their delicious baking recipes with us in their Sweet Saturday series (you can check out more of their recipes here).

And today they are spoiling us with their perfect pavlova recipe.

Where there’s a whisk, there’s a way. 

You just cannot beat a pav in summer and in particular this beauty. 

We had this at a family barbeque last weekend which went down a delight and what’s great about this pavlova is that it feeds a lot of people so it’s great for a dinner party or a special occasion.

This mix makes a chewy, marshmallow meringue, which goes perfectly with cream and a combination of colourful summer fruits!

And if you haven’t tried making meringues before, don’t be scared as this mix is fool proof, just pop the sugar and egg whites in a mixer and whisk till you have stiff glossy peaks, add in the cornflour and white wine vinegar, pop in the oven and you’re sorted.

Ingredients:

• 8 large egg whites
• 1 pinch of salt
• 500 grams caster sugar
• 4 teaspoons cornflour
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar (or vinegar is just fine)
• 500 - 750 ml whipping cream (whipped)
• Fruit for the top of your pavlova – we used 1 chopped mango, 1 punnet of strawberries and 1 punnet of blueberries & 3 kiwis. You can use any fruit you desire! All the berries are in season at the moment and taste delicious!
• 1 sprinkling of icing sugar (for dusting)

Method:

You will need 1 large baking tray, lined with parchment.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160 fan/ gas mark 4.

Separate your egg whites from your egg yolks. 

Egg separators can come in handy for this.

Whisk the egg whites with the salt until they're holding firm peaks.

Gently add in the sugar, spoonful after spoonful, still beating, until you've got a bowl full of gleaming, satiny, snowy meringue.

Sprinkle the cornflour, a few drops of vanilla or the scrapings of one vanilla pod (optional) and the vinegar on top and fold in to combine.

Spoon the meringue onto the baking parchment into a large circle, and spread and smooth to fill.

You want to make the meringue slightly higher at the rims, or just use the back of the spoon to make an indentation in the centre to hold the cream and fruit later.

Put into the oven, turn it down to 150ºC/130 Fan/gas mark 2, and bake for 45 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave it in for another 45 minutes, then take out of the oven to cool.

Transfer the pavlova on the baking parchment to a wire rack.

When cool, dollop your whisked cream into the indentation, and smooth it with the back of a spoon, leaving the odd peak.

Place your chopped colourful fruit on top and dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

If you guys have any baking questions, we’ll be back on Monday to answer them so make sure to comment below.

If you’d like to read more from Boutique Bake, why not check out their website www.boutiquebake.ie? And if you are a social media fan, you can like them on Facebook, find them on the twitter machine (or Instagram) by searching @boutique_bake or even on Pinterest.