Mama’s Pavlova. The Secrets.

Good morning from California!

It is warm here.  Wonderful.  And time to make our celebratory Pavlova. This is the quintessential down-under dessert. As you know I am from New Zealand and I am more than happy to claim Pavlova as a New Zealand ballerina dessert.

Pavlova is easy to make. However there are four things to remember when making your Pav.

1. Use room temperature eggs.

2. GO SLOW at every stage.  Work easily and gently. You cannot hurry a Pav.

3. Heat your oven to 330(190C) then turn down to 300 (180C) when you place the pav in the oven.

4. The  meringue rule: Turn the oven off after 45 minutes and allow The Pav  to cool IN the oven. Do Not open the door, just walk away and let it finish cooking in the cooling oven.

Mama’s Pavlova.

• 6 egg whites at room temperature
• 2 cups ordinary sugar
• 3 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp chilled water

Remember.. take your time. Begin to beat the eggwhites on low then slowly increase the speed every minute or so until you are beating on high and  they become light, fluffy and peaky.

Add the cornflour slowly as it is still beating on medium.  Then the vanilla,  and vinegar.

Turn to high again and slowly, a tiny bit at a time, add the sugar. Your mixture will become white with glorious meringue peaks. Then right at the end, add the cold, cold water. I don’t know why Mum added water but there you are, this is how she made it.

I cooked the pavlova in a paper lined spring form cake tin. So gently transfer your mixture to the tin and carefully place in the lower half of an oven set to 320, drop it to 300. Cook for 45 minutes. Then turn the oven off and leave to cool in the oven.

It was served with fresh California strawberries  and unsweetened cream.

Though the newest member of our family had way better things to do than scoff  pavlova with its marvellous mix of marshmallow and crunch.

Good morning. I hope you are all well in all your corners of the world.  Things are good at the farmy. Though when I spoke to Our John yesterday he said he was lighting the fire as it was freezing cold and windy.  But we did get 3/4 an inch of rain.  And on top of all his work, he had the shearer man turn up quite out of the blue to give the sheep a haircut.  Good for the sheep. But annoying for us as I was going to photograph that process for you.  It is amazing to see a sheep emerge from all that wool. So now the weather can warm up over there thank you very much!

I am off  again into the treadmill of plane travel early tomorrow morning. Then on Tuesday you and I will fall back with relief into our usual routine of daily chores and early morning posts. Until then. Good morning and  enjoy your pavlova!

Oh and by the way, it is calm here in Cali. No wind, and forecast to be 90 degrees! Lovely.

celi