Another batch of fresh pasta and a second tiramisu left me with more egg whites to use up so, naturally, I made another pavlova. The last one was delicious, but I wanted to try out something different this time. My original plan had been to do a vanilla meringue topped with coconut yogurt, passionfruit, and peaches and mangoes. Unfortunately the grocery store was all out of passionfruit, so that plan was out the window. But I still had the mango and the egg whites to use up. TF suggested just doing the same pavlova minus the passionfruit, but it felt a little lacking to me so I went hunting for inspiration.

Most of the mango recipes that I found didn't really appeal to me, but I did hit upon a couple that paired mango with ube (purple yam). Now that sounded like a good idea! And I loved the look of the pretty purple meringues. Of couse, that required either ube powder, ube extract, or both, neither of which I had. What I did have though, was frozen grated ube.

Some quick Googling said that I should be able to dry out the frozen ube in the oven and then just grind it into a powder for baking. It meant adding an extra day of prep time to the pavlova while I waited for the yam to dry, but now I have a bowl of ube powder, so I'd say it was worth it!

Ube Pavlova

Inspired by some recipes I saw online, but not actually following any of them

Ingredients

• 6 large egg whites
• 330g sugar
• 2 Tbsp. ube powder
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (or ube extract if you have it)
• 8 drops blue food colouring (optional)
• 6 drops red food colouring (optional)
• 500g coconut Greek yogurt¹
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Beat the egg whites until foamy and beginning to thicken.
3. Continue beating the egg whites while adding the sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Add the ube powder and cornstarch 1 Tbsp. at a time while still beating.
5. Beat in the cream of tartar, then beat in the vanilla.
6. If you would like a stronger purple colour, beat in the food colouring at this point.
7. The meringue should be at the "stiff peak" stage by now. If not, continue beating until it forms stiff peaks. (This can take up to 10 minutes.)
8. Scoop the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet and shape it into a thick disc with a deep depression in the middle.
9. Bake at 120°C (250°F) for 90 minutes.
10. When done, turn off the oven and leave the meringue in until completely cooled. (Overnight works well.)
11. Just before serving, top the meringue with the coconut yogurt and fresh mango. (Add a bit of toasted coconut as well if you'd like.)
12. Serve immediately!

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¹ I found the coconut to be the weakest component of this pavlova. I think next time I'd try making some sort of coconut-flavoured custard and garnishing with toasted coconut. ^Back