Page 37 - Real Rochdale Issue 18 Summer 2023

INDIVIDUAL PAVLOVAS

by Natasha Brown - owner of Brown’s Cakes

These individual pavlovas are exquisite! They take a lot of mixing, and once baked need to be left
in the oven overnight, so they need making in advance, but they are well worth the effort.

Crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, they leave shop-bought meringue nests
for dust!

Ingredients For decoration

• 110g egg whites (from approximately • 250ml double cream
4 medium eggs) • 1 tablespoon icing sugar
• 175g caster sugar • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ tablespoon (5g) cornflour • Fruit of your choice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest from a dry
lemon

Preparation: Beat the egg whites at a medium speed
(not a fast speed as although this would
Heat the oven to 150°C . be quicker, it can cause problems with the
meringue). Once the egg whites form soft
Find something approximately 5 or 6cm in peaks slow the whisk a little and beat in the
diameter which you can draw round to caster sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Make
create 8 circles on a piece of baking paper. sure the sugar is well mixed in before
Repeat on a second sheet. adding the next spoonful. When all the
sugar is mixed in, turn the whisk back up to
Place these sheets onto baking trays with medium and beat the mixture until all the
the pencil line on the back of the sheet so sugar is dissolved. If you rub a little of the
that when you bake the meringues the mixture between your fingers, it should
pencil doesn’t transfer onto the meringue. feel smooth, not gritty.

Make sure all your equipment is very clean Mix the cornflour with the lemon juice to
and dry as any water or grease can prevent make a thin paste and add this along with
your egg whites from thickening. the lemon zest into the meringue mixture
and beat them together. Bake the meringues for 40 minutes then Spoon the cream onto the pavlovas and
turn the oven off and leave them in the decorate with chopped fruit. All fruit works

For the meringue: Spoon the mixture to fill the circles on the oven to cool overnight. well with pavlovas so anything in season
baking paper and swirl the meringue to goes.
Separate the egg whites making sure that create a dip in the centre. To decorate:
you don’t get any yolk in them. Weighing I love the physalis that I used on these as
the egg whites is best as eggs vary in size Turn the oven down to 110°C and place Whip the cream at a medium speed. Once they give such a dramatic finish to the little
and weight. the baking trays in the oven. it’s thick add the icing sugar and vanilla and desserts.
beat until smooth and thick.

REAL ROCHDALE - SUMMER 2023 36 37 REAL ROCHDALE - SUMMER 2023