Pavlova

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 10 g butter
• 2 20 g caster sugar
• 3 60 g egg white
• 4 100 g caster sugar
• 5 4 kiwis
• 6 ½ pineapple
• 7 1 banana
• 8 4 tablespoons Sugar syrup
• 9 ½ lime
• 10 150 ml Chantilly cream
• Total weight: 2,075 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 19 min.	30 min.	45 min.	2 hours 34 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Place a sheet of cooking parchment (or a silicon sheet) on a baking sheet and stand a dessert ring 24 cm (10 inches ) in diameter on top.
  Melt 10 g butter and brush this over the "base" inside the ring.
• 2: Sprinkle caster sugar over the melted butter.
• 3: Do the same for the inside surface of the ring: brush with melted butter, then coat with caster sugar.
• 4: Put the ring back into place.
  This will give us a meringue that is lightly caramelized on the outside.
  Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
• 5: Beat 60 g egg white to the stiff peak stage, then fold in 100 g caster sugar to make the meringue.
• 6: Pipe a spiral to cover the base inside the ring using a forcing bag.
• 7: Then pipe a circle around the edge to form the side of the pavlova.
• 8: Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes. Ideally, the meringue should be crisp on the outside and still soft in the centre.
• 9: Meanwhile, peel 4 kiwis and dice small.
• 10: Do the same thing with ½ pineapple.
  Peel 1 banana and slice.
• 11: Mix the diced fruit together, add 4 tablespoons Sugar syrup and the juice of ½ lime. Mix well.
  Set aside.
• 12: Take the meringue out of the oven as soon as it is ready and leave to cool (this is important, otherwise it is likely to break).
• 13: Slip a knife all around the inside of the ring.
• 14: Remove the ring and stand the pavlova on the serving plate.
• 15: Assemble the pavlova: spread a layer of cream in the meringue shell.
• 16: Top with the diced fruit.
  Serve immediately.

Remarks

The name "pavlova" came from the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, for whom the dessert was invented - another artistic muse, like for peach melba.
A pavlova must be served straight away, as the fruit will soon moisten the meringue and make it go soft.
Use fruit in season (kiwi, pineapple and bananas as as I write). You can achieve excellent results with a mix of soft fruit, combining red (red currants, strawberries, raspberries) and black (blackberries, blackcurrants).
But to "render unto Caesar", as they say, I admit to having pinched the excellent idea of caramelizing the meringue from Christophe Michalak.

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