Kitchen

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

I am a pretty good baker and like to try new recipes. Saw a beautiful Pavlova awhile ago, very pretty and impressive looking dessert. I made one today and amazingly it came out pretty good. My plan was putting sliced strawberries on top, but my daughter, God love her who braved Wegmans on Good Friday said there was not a strawberry or blueberry to be seen. I had a bag of frozen peaches in the freezer so I sauteed them in a melted butter and brown sugar mixture and put on top after I put on the whipped cream of the pavlova. While it was good and looked fine, I think it was a tad too crunchy inside. My understanding is the outside is crunchy and the middle is to be soft and marshmellowy. Is that a word?. lol Not sure if my oven runs a little hot. I did it at 300 degrees for the 1 hr. baking time and turned off the oven and opened the door some and let it in the oven until it cooled. Anyone have any tips for improvement?

[Clover29]

I thought meringue needed to be cooked for several hours on a very low heat to be crispy all the way through, and just doing it for one hour would result in a marshmallowy center. So I am as baffled as you are, sorry

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

I used a recipe from Allrecipes.com. It said 300 degrees for one hour, oven off, and prop door open until completely cooled. Will try again and see what happens. Hubby and son liked it, daughter thought it was too sweet. I might cut back on the sugar from 1 and 1/2 cup to 1 next time. Will make sure to use the strawberries next time too. For some reason I am determined to master this darn thing.

[LooPY]

Oh my goodness--pavlova is my very favorite! You definitely have bragging rights for creating this wonderful dessert! It's been forever since I've made one, but I think the consensus is that the oven is preheated to 300* then when the meringue goes into the oven, reduce the temp to 250* I'll be happy to serve as your tester!

[Mothertrucker]

Food network Magazine had a recipe for a chocolate Pavlova couple months ago..it looked amazing!

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

Thanks for the help. I will try reducing the temp next time. I have to admit that once it was on my glass cake stand all done it did look pretty good. It was just that i believe it was a tad too done. I will get some strawberries this week and try again. Good grief, I just retired last Friday and getting this thing perfect is my first project. I need a life. lol

[DiAnne]

I always make individual ones and push a little bowl in them before putting in the oven. They are wonderful with berries. I mix strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.

[Lynneuk]

Pavlovas are the best and I grew up eating them on special occasions in the UK. I think the best recipes are by Nigella Lawson. Google Nigella Lawson pavlova and you'll get lots of ideas. One thing though, you mentioned cutting down on the sugar. There is a formula of egg white to sugar and if it isn't correct then the recipe won't work. Now I feel like a big slice of pavlova,lol!

[Campion]

I do make it--my lab tech in college was a gal from New Zealand and we exchanged recipes. She taught me Pavlova and Christmas Cake, and I taught her turkey and all the fixin's for Thanksgiving--and how to carve. We had a wonderful time--a truly lovely person.

Her method:

1. she used a bit of vinegar in the meringue mix. She also used "caster sugar" which is a very fine granulated sugar. You can buzz regular white sugar in the food processor with the blade to get caster sugar.

2. The secret to the crunchy outside and the soft inside is that she'd let the REAL whipped cream soak in before serving it. (not Cool Whip and believe me, I like Cool Whip) Not Reddi-Whip, REAL WHIPPED cream you make yourself.

3. She'd top it with fresh fruit, including peeled and sliced Kiwis,which we'd never seen before (in the 70's) and which she called "Chinese Gooseb'rries'" in her charming accent.

You can use drained Mandarin Oranges, Kiwis, strawberries, mixed berries.

[LooPY]

On 4/5/2015 Legal Secretary said:

Thanks for the help. I will try reducing the temp next time. I have to admit that once it was on my glass cake stand all done it did look pretty good. It was just that i believe it was a tad too done. I will get some strawberries this week and try again. Good grief, I just retired last Friday and getting this thing perfect is my first project. I need a life. lol

I think it's a very noble (and delicious) venture! I just remembered, if you're going to preheat to 300* and turn the temp down to 250*, it will need to be baked for 1 hour and 15 min.