Pavlova is my husband’s favourite dessert. For many years his mother made the best pavlova, and mine always failed. I tried many recipes, but never had any luck.
Then, one day, just in passing, I mentioned this to my mother. Oh, she said, you need to do this… and proceeded to give me the important, nay vital, tips and tricks to make a pavlova work.
So I followed her tips, and voila, pavlova. But my mother in law’s was still better.
Then one day, I made pavlova, put it in the oven, and horror of horrors, I forgot about it. By the time I remembered, it had been in the oven two hours or more. I crossed my fingers as I opened the oven to look. It wasn’t burned, but looked very crusty.
Lo and behold, my husband adored it. The bottom was crunchy, the sides and top had a thick layer of crunchy meringue, and the centre was only about an inch of dense gooey pavlova. It turned out that he preferred more crunch than goo, and the type you buy tend to be three inches of fluffy goo and little crunch and aren’t really to his taste.
Completely by accident, I had stumbled onto the perfect combination. The perfect pavlova.
Now my mother in law uses my recipe, and everyone is happy. The only downside is I keep getting asked to bring pavlova to family dinners and special occasions.
Ah well, the price of success, as they say.
Here, for your enjoyment, is my triumphant pavlova recipe.
Pavlova a la Morte
Ingredients
5 egg whites (from medium to large room temperature eggs, absolutely no yolk)
1 and 1/4 cups of castor sugar (5 one quarter cups, one for each egg white)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (the liquid, not the bean paste)
2 teaspoons white vinegar (not white wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon fine cornflour (not cornmeal, preference for cornflour from corn, not wheat)
Method
Prepare your tray. A flat cookie sheet or baking tray with a sheet of baking paper. If you want you can draw a circle on the paper to shape your pav into later. Not too big, though.
Turn on the oven, to 125 degrees Celsius fan forced. Place the rack in the centre of the oven. Let it come to temperature as you work.
Clean your mixing bowl and beaters well. Wipe out the bowl with a little extra white vinegar to be sure. Any grease or oil will stop the egg whites frothing properly.
When separating your eggs, always do one at a time, so if you break a yolk, you haven’t wasted five eggs! I save my yolks for ice cream, but you could also make lovely rich scrambled eggs with them, or make custard or lemon butter or whatever you like.
Beat the egg whites until very stiff peaks form. This means you can turn the bowl upside down and they won’t pour out onto your head. I’m serious, I use speed four (out of five), scrape the bowl sides down occasionally, and let it go until the froth starts to move up the side of the bowl.
With the beaters still running, slowly sprinkle in the castor sugar, scraping down sides occasionally. Let it beat on high until the mixture is no longer gritty. (Yes, rub some between your thumb and finger and feel it. It should be smooth and very shiny.)
While still beating, sprinkle in vanilla essence. Let it incorporate.
Then slowly sprinkle in the white vinegar. Let it mix in well.
Then sprinkle in the cornflour. It will tend to scatter everywhere in a fine cloud, so scrape the sides of the bowl down a couple of times and let it all beat in well.
The mix should be thick and glossy and shiny.
Dab a tiny bit under each corner of the baking paper on your tray to stop it shifting.
Pile the rest of the mix into the centre of the paper, forming a rough flat-topped circle. Higher rather than wider is best. I get a circle maybe as big as a side plate, and about as high as a coffee cup. It’ll spread as it cooks, then collapse in the centre as it cools.
Place in the centre of the pre-heated oven. Cook for 1 hour. Turn tray around. Cook for another 1 hour. Turn oven down to 110-120 and cook a further 15 minutes. Total 2 hours and 15 minutes. Then open door slightly and turn the oven off, and let the pavlova cool in the oven. Yes, it will collapse in the centre rather nicely. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to.
Fill the top with whipped chantilly cream (sweetened cream flavoured with vanilla), and top with strawberries or grated chocolate (or both). Our preference is for shattered Peppermint Crisp chocolate.
Done!
Enjoy!
Perfection isn’t enough for you? Need to play around with the recipe? Find ten more pavlova ideas here; https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/…/10-best…/7c4kgjhq
Do you want to read more of Morte Oakley? Find her MAC works here; https://mountainashchapter.com.au/?author=6
