We've had a friend from New Zealand visiting us for the past couple of weeks. I wanted to make a pavlova for him while he was here since I never acutally got a chance to try one while I was over there. And, because I'm me, I wanted to try a new flavour combination that I hadn't done before.

I actually ended up making two differen pavlovas in the end. This dried apricot one and a somewhat simpler ginger-lemon curd one. They were both excellent and I keep going back and forth on which one I liked best.

This one was definitely the richer of the two. While the lemon curd in the first recipe used a mix of whole eggs and egg yolks with just a bit of butter, this one uses all egg yolks and the maximum possible amout of butter that they will allow you to emulsify before the whole thing breaks. It's also meant to include a sizeable quantity of both thickened cream and crème fra&icric;che, but I decided to swap those out for some plain Greek yogurt.

I think that the yogurt worked quite well! It still gave it a nice tartness and creaminess without quite as much chance of causing a major coronary event.

Dried Apricot Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Delicious.com.au

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. lemon juice (or 1 Tbsp. verjuice)
• 200g sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Curd

• 8 large egg yolks
• 140g sugar
• 180g unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Other Toppings

• 225g dried apricots, divided
• 200mL verjuice, divided
• 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 sprig rosemary¹
• ~1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. sliced almonds, toasted

Directions

Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Whisk egg whites with lemon juice at gradually increasing speed until foamy.
3. Add the sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to whisk at high speed until all sugar has been used.
4. Add the cornstarch and continue whisking until stiff peaks form. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet and shape into a large cyinder or dome.²
6. Place the meringue in the oven, immediately turn the temperature down to 120°C (250°F), and bake for 1 hour.
7. Turn oven off and leave meringue in warm oven to cool for at least 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Apricot Purée

1. Combine 100g of apricots and 100mL of the verjuice and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
2. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and set aside to steep for 10-15 minutes.
3. Use an immersion blender or food processor to purée until smooth.

Apricot Curd

1. Combine egg yolks and sugar and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 15-20 minutes.
2. Begin adding butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to cook over low heat and whisk constantly.
3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and apricot purée.

Poached Apricots

1. Combine remaining 125g apricots with remaining 100mL verjuice and 1/3 c. of water.
2. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
3. With a slotted spoon or spider, transfer apricots to a bowl and set aside.
4. Add honey and rosemary to the liquid left in the pot and bring to a boil.
5. Boil for 4-5 minutes, then remove from heat and pour over the apricots.

Assembly

1. Once everything is cool, top the pavolva with the Greek yogurt followed by the apricot curd. (Or do it the other way round and put the curd on first if you prefer.)
2. Add the poached apricots on top and then drizzle with the syrup.
3. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and serve.

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¹ I didn't have any fresh rosemary, so I just used a generous pinch of some that I'd dried myself the last time I did have fresh rosemary. ^Back
2 I recently learned that pavlovas are not actually supposed to have a hollow in the centre to hold all the toppings. They sometimes end up that way because they're slighly underbaked or because they can't support the weight of the toppings that have been added, but they are not (typically) actually meant to be like that. This was news to me as I've been deliberately making bowl-shaped pavs for years now! I guess maybe next time I can give the traditional shape a try. (Although TF is somewhat dubious about the traditional shape and its ability to hold all the tasty toppings.) ^Back

I found myself with a surplus of egg whites after making my pumpkin pie cupcakes the other day. I've been hanging on to them in the fridge with the idea that maybe I could work out something to do with them. I tossed around a few ideas, but these days pavlova is my go-to for using up excess egg whites. Sure I could toss them into a quiche or make an angel food cake, white cake, or friands... but pavlova is just so easy to throw together. And there are so many different flavour combinations to try!

My first pavlova was just a plain vanilla meringue with stewed boysenberries and whipped cream. The next time around I got a little more adventerous; the meringue was still plain vanilla, but I topped it with chocolate mousse and macerated cherries for a black forest sort of vibe. One of my favourites so far has been the spiced cherry pavlova: vanilla meringue, plain Greek yogurt, passion fruit, and stewed spiced cherries. The ube pavlova was my first attempt at a adding different flavours to the meringue. That one consisted of an ube (purple yam) meringue topped with coconut-flavoured Greek yogurt and fresh mango. I think it would've benefitted from a bit of ube extract (in addition to the ube powder) in the meringue and some toasted coconut or coconut extract with the yogurt to help boost the coconut's presence, but it was pretty good over all.

This pavlova follows a similar theme of meringue + whipped cream + fruit. But the meringue gets a bit of dark chocolate swirled through it just before baking. The berries can be pretty much whatever you have on hand. The original recipe called for a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries. I ended up using mostly strawberries with a few blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries mixed in. The berries are "mulled" by steeping in a mixture of apple juice (or red wine), orange juice, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. I was using frozen berries rather than fresh and found the resulting mixture a bit more soupy than I would have liked. I think I'd cut back on the apple juice next time to help alleviate this. And I'd also be inclined to add a few more spices to really lean into the "mulled" aspect: maybe a bit of allspice and some black pepper?

Overall though, this came out great. The chocolate marbling actually worked pretty well. The chocolate flavour came through nicely. And the mulled berries, malted cream, and bitter-sweet chocolate-y meringue all complemented each other nicely. I'd definitely make it again. That is... if there weren't so many other flavour combinations to try!

Dark Chocolate Marbled Pavlova with Malted Whipped Cream and Mulled Berries

Adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites¹
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar (or white vinegar)
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 220g sugar
• 100g dark chocolate, melted

Berries

• 2-3 whole cloves
• 2 star anise
• 2-3 allspice berries
• 3-4 black peppercorns
• 1 orange
• 125mL apple juice (or red wine)²
• 1/4 c. brown sugar³
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick
• 450g frozen mixed berries⁴
• 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Cream

• 300mL heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. malted milk powder (eg. Ovaltine)
• 1 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F).
2. Beat the egg whites on low speed for ~1 minute.
3. Add the cream of tartar, increase to medium speed, and beat for another minute or two.
4. Add the cornstarch and beat for another minute.
5. Increase speed to high and begin adding the sugar ~1 Tbsp. at a time.
6. Once meringue is thick, glossy, and forms stiff peaks, stop beating it.
7. Drizzle in the melted chocolate and fold it through a few times. Don't mix it too thoroughly or it won't be marbled!
8. Scoop the meringue onto a baking sheet and shape as desired. I like making a large meringue bowl/nest. You can pipe it onto the baking sheet if you want to be fancy, but I never bother.
9. Bake at 120°C (250°F) for 65-75 minutes.
10. Turn off oven and leave meringue inside to cool. (At least an hour, but as long as overnight.)
11. Meanwhile, place the cloves, star anise, allspice, and peppercorns into a muslin or cheesecloth pouch.
12. Zest and juice the orange.
13. Add the spice bag, orange zest, brown sugar, and cinnamon stick to the apple juice and bring to a boil over medium heat.
14. Boil the juice mixture for 7-8 minutes.
15. Add the berries and continue cooking until the mixture returns to a boil.
16. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.
17. Remove the spice bag.
18. Take a little juice out and mix it with the cornstarch. Pour this cornstarch mixture back into the pot and continue cooking for another minute or two.
19. Remove from heat and stir in orange juice.
20. Just before serving, combine the cream, malted milk powder, icing sugar, and vanilla extract.
21. Use an immersion blender⁵ to vigorously mix until the cream thickens and gets fairly stiff. If you stop whipping too soon, the cream will be runny. If you go too far, the cream will split into butter and buttermilk. If in doubt, err on the side of "runny".
22. Carefully transfer the cooled meringue to a serving platter.
23. Spoon the whipped cream onto it.
24. Spoon the mulled berries over the whole thing and serve immediately.

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¹ I ended up using 2 large and 3 small egg whites. Use your best judgement based on the size of your eggs. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 250mL of apple juice or red wine, but it was also expecting fresh berries. I've reduced the amount of liquid and replace the fresh berries with frozen. Hopefully this should help make the final result a bit less soupy in the future. ^Back
3 The original recipe uses white (granulated) sugar. I used white sugar when I made this. I liked it just fine that way. But I think I might like it even better with brown sugar. I think it would give the mulling spices some extra depth. ^Back
4 The original recipe called for 150g each of strawberries and cherries + 125g each of blackberries and raspberries. All fresh. I used 550g of frozen mixed berries instead. This was fine, but I think it was a) too soupy and b) produced a bit too much topping relative to the meringue, so I've scaled back both the number of berries (slightly) and the amount of apple juice used to try to help with both of those issues. ^Back
5 You can use beaters (or even just a whisk) to make whipped cream. I advocate using a blender here because it produces a denser whipped cream that's more robust and resistant to deflating/melting than the lighter, airier whipped cream produced with a mixer/beaters/whisks. It'll be fine either way. This is just my preferred method. ^Back