Did you know ballerinas smell like vanilla? Just like this dessert, light and tender-sweet, named after the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova – Pavlova (remember the stress on the penultimate syllable). For Christmas, it is customary to cook it in the shape of a wreath and to decorate it to your taste with whatever comes to your mind and will help create the desired contrast in taste: the meringue and cream are sweet, which means we need something with a slight sourness, for example, oranges. Do not forget, you should serve Pavlova immediately after you have laid out the cream and decorated it, although I think you will not be able to wait long anyway 😉
Did you know ballerinas smell like vanilla? Just like this dessert, light and tender-sweet, named after the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova – Pavlova (remember the stress on the penultimate syllable). For Christmas, it is customary to cook it in the shape of a wreath and to decorate it to your taste with whatever comes to your mind and will help create the desired contrast in taste: the meringue and cream are sweet, which means we need something with a slight sourness, for example, oranges. Do not forget, you should serve Pavlova immediately after you have laid out the cream and decorated it, although I think you will not be able to wait long anyway 😉- Prep time: 35 minutes + time for chilling
- Cook time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Serves: 8
- Difficulty: medium
- Course: dessert
- Cookware: stand mixer, egg separator, silicone spatula
- Cuisine: Australian / New Zealand
Ingredients
For the meringue:
- 6 egg whites, room temperature
- 350 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp corn starch
For the cream:
- ½ litre double cream
- 25 g icing sugar
- seeds of 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 1 tbsp Baileys original Irish cream
For the decorations:
- 2 oranges, thin-skinned
- 6 dates
- 50 g sugar for caramel threads
Cooking method
Step 1⠀
Heat the oven to 140˚C. Line a baking tray with baking parchment, draw a large circle 25-30cm diameter on it (depending on the size of the oven). Draw another smaller one circle inside this one, so that you make a ring.
Step 2
Whisk the whites until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add the icing sugar, whisking until firm peaks, until the whites are stiff and glossy. Add vinegar and starch, and stir in whites gently with a silicone spatula.
Step 3
Spoon the egg whites onto the drawn ring. Make a shallow trench in the meringue for the cream and fruit to sit in.
Step 4
Reducing the temperature to 100˚C, and bake the meringue for 2 hours 30 minutes. Then turn off the oven, open the door and leave the meringue in the oven until it cools completely (it is best to leave it overnight).
Step 5
Cook the cream. Add icing sugar to the double cream. Beat the mass until creamy. Add vanilla and stir gently. Peel the oranges and chop finely. Pit and cut the dates in half.
Step 6
Put the cream into the trench in the meringue. Decorate with oranges, dates and caramel threads.
My tips and tricks:
I make “dry” caramel, that is, I do not use water for this. Therefore, the process goes very quickly and you need to closely monitor the caramel so as not to miss it. Pour 50g sugar into a small saucepan or frying pan, put on medium heat and, without stirring, wait until the sugar begins to melt and change its colour to golden brown. Remember that the bottom of the cookware is hot and even when you remove it from the heat, the process continues, so do it a little ahead of time. After removing the caramel from the heat, take a fork and pull the caramel up with it. Once the threads start to appear on the fork, you can begin. With a quick movement of your hand, pick up caramel with a fork and over the bowl in one level (like a pendulum), make threads. Continue until the caramel runs out. After that, immediately take all the threads and shape them into decorations. Remember the caramel is very hot, be careful not to burn yourself. Caramel threads will make any dessert special, if you want you can wrap a berry in them, for example, or a dry rose. Create, and don’t ever stop 🙂
- 6 egg whites, room temperature
- 350 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp corn starch
- For the cream:
- ½ litre double cream
- 25 g icing sugar
- seeds of 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 1 tbsp Baileys original Irish cream
- For the decorations:
- 2 oranges, thin-skinned
- 6 dates
- 50 g sugar for caramel threads
- Heat the oven to 140˚C. Line a baking tray with baking parchment, draw a large circle 25-30cm diameter on it (depending on the size of the oven). Draw another smaller one circle inside this one, so that you make a ring.
- Whisk the whites until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add the icing sugar, whisking until firm peaks, until the whites are stiff and glossy. Add vinegar and starch, and stir in whites gently with a silicone spatula.
- Spoon the egg whites onto the drawn ring. Make a shallow trench in the meringue for the cream and fruit to sit in.
- Reducing the temperature to 100˚C, and bake the meringue for 2½ hours. Then turn off the oven, open the door and leave the meringue in the oven until it cools completely (it is best to leave it overnight).
- Cook the cream. Add icing sugar to the double cream. Beat the mass until creamy. Add vanilla and stir gently. Peel the oranges and chop finely. Pit and cut the dates in half.
- Put the cream into the trench in the meringue. Decorate with oranges, dates and caramel threads.