Pavlova

I know I’ve said it before, but I don’t really have a particularly sweet tooth, so many puddings are rather alien to me. I have to confess that before I made this, I wasn’t entirely sure what a Pavlova was. It had meringue in it, I was pretty sure, and fruit, but just how they went together, I had no idea. Anyway, tonight, I’m going to find out.

It starts with marking out a circle on a piece of baking parchment. That’s a big circle.

Then, I take some egg whites.

And whisk them with some salt and cream of tartar.

Once they froth, I add sugar and beat until thick and glossy.

Then, I spoon the beaten whites into the circle on the baking parchment and make a well in the centre.

Bake in the oven, until crisp on the outside, and (hopefully) soft on the inside. This beast is enormous.

I then leave it to cool.

Once cool, it seems to be disintegrating! The outside is cracking up and bits falling off. Sue takes a look, and says that “rustic” look is pretty normal for a Pavlova. I have no idea, but decide there’s no option but to go with it.

Now for the filling. I whip cream, together with a little raspberry liqueur.

That goes into the middle of the now very dilapidated-looking meringue.

Finally, I top with raspberries and passion fruit. Now that is a pudding.

I serve, large, generous slices. We have a lot to get through.

Well, it’s really very nice. The outside shell of the meringue is crisp, the interior, soft and gooey – perfectly cooked, I think. The raspberries are delicious, the passion fruit is tart, but balance the sweetness of the meringue very well. I rarely do dessert, but even I rather liked this one. Definitely a hit.