This was excellent! It's obviously not the healthiest or the most vegetable-rich of vegetable side dishes, but it is very tasty.

Corn & Gruyère Soufflé

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 c. milk
• 150g gruyère, grated
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cobs
• 5 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Grease a soufflé dish and dust it with the Parmesan.
3. Melt the butter over medium heat.
4. Add the onion and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
5. Add the salt, pepper, and flour and cook until no longer raw (~3 minutes).
6. Add the milk and cook, stirring, until sauce is smooth and thick.
7. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.
8. Beat the egg yolks until creamy (1-2 minutes) and stir them into the sauce.
9. Mix in the corn.
10. In a clean dry bowl, combine egg whites and cream of tartar and beat until stiff.
11. Stir ~1/3 of the egg whites into the sauce.
12. Fold in the remaining egg whites just until no streaks remain.
13. Carefully pour or scoop soufflé mixture into the prepared dish.
14. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 40-50 minutes. (Soufflé should be slightly jiggly, but not liquid in the centre.)
15. Serve immediately.

Feijoa season is in full swing and, in addition to just snacking on them daily, I've been trying to use some of them up in baking as well.

I've already made two huge apple-feijoa crumbles. They're great as a quick and easy dessert to use up large quantities of feijoa pulp. But I also didn't want to end up just making crumbles forever. So I went poking around the Internet looking for other recipe ideas. And boy-oh-boy, do I have a lot now! It was hard to decide where to start!

In the end, I opted for a feijoa custard tart. Mostly because Reiver really likes custard, so I figured that might be an agreeable way to use up a few feijoas.

The custard recipe called for egg yolks. I was going to just swap out the yolks for whole eggs, soas not to end up with surplus whites kicking around. But then I saw the note at the bottom suggesting that you use the surplus whites to make these chocloate-feijoa friands.

So, on the one hand, that meant committing to making two desserts tonight. But, on the other hand, it would neatly use up all of the eggs and let me use even more feijoas! And neither recipe looked terribly difficult or complicated to put together, so I figured I'd just go for it and make both of 'em.

I haven't had a chance to try the pie yet, but these friands were incredible! I wasn't entirely sold on chocolate friands. Classic friands are so good as is, I felt like adding chocolate and fruit could only possibly detract from them. But this combination really works! It's definitely quite different from a standard friand, but, I would argue, equally as good.

Chocolate-Feijoa Friands

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 5 large egg whites
• 120g ground almonds (almond flour/meal)
• 195g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) or gluten-free flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 200g butter, melted
• 9 small feijoas, halved and scooped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and grease a muffin tin (or two)¹.
2. Beat the egg whites slightly to break them up. (No need to beat until stiff; slightly foamy is fine.)
3. In a separate bowl, combine the almonds, sugar, and flour.
4. Sift in the cocoa and baking powder and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites and stir to mix.
6. Pour in the melted butter and stir until just combined.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Don't fill them too full; ~2/3 full is plenty!
8. Press a feijoa half into the top of each friand.
9. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 20-25 minutes.
10. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

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¹ The recipe claims that this makes 12 friands, but I actually got 18 using standard 5-cm diameter muffin tins. Obviously the exact number you get will depend on the size of your tins and how full you fill them. I felt like 18 was pretty much perfect though. ^Back

We've had some surplus egg whites sitting in the fridge for a few days now. Initially I'd been hoping to use them for a sugar-free pavlova. But I hadn't had a chance to get back to the grocery store to get the sweetener and I was worried about them going off before I had a chance, so I opted to use them up in these macaroons instead. They were, ostensibly, meant to be chocolate-dipped macaroons, but we liked them so much as-is that we didn't bother with the chocolate.

The original recipe called for making these with sweetened coconut. This was clearly insane. I found them plenty sweet with just unsweetened coconut and the recommended amount of sugar. I think they would have been cloying and bordering on inedible with sweetened coconut!

Coconut Macaroons

Adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 250g unsweetened shredded dried coconut
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 medium egg whites

Directions

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
3. Spread the mixture out on one of the baking sheets and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).
5. Scoop up a generous tablespoon of the coconut mixture, form it into a ball, and place it on the other prepared baking sheet.
6. Repeat with remaining mixture.
7. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 30 minutes.

These are pretty simple, but really good! They're just simple baked meringues with a bit of cocoa and dark chocolate stirred in. But they're pleasantly crisp on the outside and soft in the centre, with just a bit of chew to them. I suspect that comes from using a Swiss (rather than French) meringue as the base. You can get French meringues that are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, but in my experience, they're normally more fluffy than chewy.

I always find Swiss meringues a bit trickier to get right and somewhat more difficult to get to the stiff peak stage. They never seem to have quite as much structure as a good French meringue. And, of course, mixing them over the double boiler is always a bit of a faff. But sometimes it's necessary to get the desired result. And I was quite happy with the results I got here! Although I did have to adjust the sugar a fair bit. This seemed to be another case of compounded rounding errors. The measurements for the sugar were given as 1 3/4 c. (14 oz./440g). But 14 oz. is only ~392g. And, unlike flour (which can vary a fair bit based on how you measure it), sugar tends to be a fairly consistent 200g/cup. So, 1 3/4 c. should be a neat 350g, not 440 or 392!

Chocolate Meringues

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 7 large egg whites
• 350g sugar
• 30g natural cocoa powder
• 125g dark chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. Bring a pot of water to a simmer.
3. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl.
4. Place the bowl over the simmering water and beat vigorously until sugar dissolves completely and mixture becomes opaque.
5. Remove from heat and beat until stiff peaks form.
6. Sift in cocoa powder and add dark chocolate. Carefully fold ingredients together until mixed.
7. Spoon large dollops of meringue onto the prepared baking sheets.
8. Bake at 180°C (350*deg;F) for 9 minutes.
9. Rotate and swapt the trays and bake for another 9 minutes.
10. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

I've been hesitating on making the rest of the waffles in the waffle book because they're all meant to be dessert waffles rather than breakfast options. And I have so many other desserts to make. And most of them call for ingredients that I don't typically have on hand anyway. So, I've been making other desserts instead and the waffle recipes have just been sitting there. Staring at me.

But we needed something for breakfast this morning. And we had all the bits for these s'mores-inspired waffles. They're pretty sweet and rich. But, honestly, they're no worse than most of the things in the "pastries" section of the Breakfast Bible. So, I figured I'd just roll with it and give 'em a try!

They were pretty good. Although, even with a reduced quantity of chocolate (~75% of what the recipe called for), we all still found them very rich and excessively chocolate-y. I think next time I'd probably go with half chocolate. I also had a bit of trouble getting the somewhat unusual, watered down Swiss meringue to whip up nicely. It still worked. And the finished texture was actually quite nice. It just wouldn't hold a peak. Maybe that was just down to my impatience with the double boiler though. I may not have let it cook enough before transferring it to the stand mixer. Either way, it was still pretty good. Just a bit tricky to work with.

The recipe suggested making these with either malted or peanut butter waffles. I decided that peanut butter waffles (with some of the AP flour swapped out for whole wheat) sounded like a nice combo, so I went with those. That said, I do think that the malt waffles would have also been very nice. As would whole wheat. I might actually try 100% whole wheat peanut butter (or malted) waffles next time. I think the whole grain would be a nice way to evoke a bit more of the graham cracker character that I normally associate with s'mores.

S'mores Waffles

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 1 batch (6-7) peanut butter or malted waffles (preferably made with whole wheat flour)
• ~180g dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
• 6 Tbsp. warm water
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract¹

Directions

1. Make waffles as directed and preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Place the waffles on baking sheets and top each one with ~30g of the chocolate.
3. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for ~2 minutes to melt the chocolate and crisp the waffles.
4. Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to a simmer and place a heatproof bowl over it.
5. Add the egg whites, cream of tartar, and water to the bowl.
6. Gradually add the sugar while whisking vigorously.
7. Keep whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mergine is opaque and warm to the touch.
8. Transfer to a stand mixer and beat on high speed until soft peaks form (3-5 minutes).
9. Beat in vanilla.
10. Spoon the meringe into the waffles and return to oven until meringue is lightly browned on top and cooked through (4-6 minutes).
11. Serve with a glass of milk on the side.

¹ Oh no! I just realized that I completely forgot to add the vanilla to my meringue! That would have made it so much nicer! Whoops. Oh well... not much I can do about it now. :( ^Back

I had some egg whites in the fridge that needed to be used up. Normally I'd make a pavlova with surplus egg whites. But the next pav recipe that I had queued up called for mango and passionfruit, neither of which I had on hand. So I flipped through the book for other egg white recipes and hit upon these simple almond meringues.

The procedure is very simple. You just make your French meringue as usual. And then stir in a generous quantity of toasted chopped almonds. Actually, the recipe called for "very finely chopped" almonds. So, given that, I just opted for ground almonds instead. Since I had a big bag of almond flour tucked away in the freezer already. The texture is slightly different. But I figured it would be close enough and certainly saved me a lot of chopping. So, definitely a worthwhile substitution, in my opinion.

Toasted Almond Meringues

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 c. ground (or very finely chopped) almonds, toasted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. If almonds are not already toasted, put them in the oven for ~10 minutes, stirring once or twice, to toast them.
3. Warm the egg whites very gently in a warm water bath. (Put the egg whites in a small bowl and place that bowl in a larger bowl of warm water.)
4. Beat the egg whites until frothy.
5. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat.
6. Once a light foam forms, begin adding sugar ~1 Tbsp. at a time.
7. Continue beating until all sugar has been added and meringue is very stiff.
8. Beat in the vanilla.
9. Quickly and carefully fold in the almonds¹.
10. Spoon dollops of meringue² onto the prepared baking sheets.
11. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for ~20 minutes.
12. Turn oven off and allow to stand in hot oven for at least an hour or two.

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¹ The fat from the almonds will destabilize the meringue and cause it to begin collapsing. This is why it's important to get the almonds mixed in with the minimum amount of agitation. The more you stir it, the more volume your meringue will lose. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for "heaping teaspoons" of meringue. I decided that I wanted a smaller number of larger meringues, so I did heaping tablepoons for mine. And the 20-minute bake time still seemed to be ample. So I'm happy with how that worked out overall. ^Back

This was supposed to be an egg white frittata. But I've never been keen on pure egg whites for that sort of thing. So I used a mix of whole eggs and egg whites. I ended up using seven whole eggs and six egg whites, but I probably could've gotten away with five and ten respectively. Either way, I think the mix worked well. It's a bit lighter than a frittata made entirely with whole eggs, but doesn't have the aggressive leanness of an entirely yolk-less rendition.

The beet greens, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta all work well together. That said, I think fresh spinach would work almost as well. (Although I would definitely stick to fresh for this. I don't think fozen would make an acceptable substitute.) Luckily though, we had some lovely fresh beet greens left over from the beet salad we made the other day. And I hated to see them go to waste. So this recipe worked out prefectly!

Beet Green and Sun-Dried Tomato Frittata

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 100g (~2 c.) chopped beet greens, rised very well
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 75g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 5 large eggs
• 1 large egg whites
• 75-100g crumbled feta¹

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Heat the oil over medium heat.
3. Add the onion and cook until softened (5-6 minutes).
4. Add the beet greens, season to tast with salt and pepper, cover, and cook until wilted (~2 minutes).
5. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and stir to mix.
6. Spread the vegetables out into an even layer on the bottom of the pan.
7. Beat the eggs with the egg whites and pour them into the pan.
8. Cook, without stirring, for 2 minutes.
9. Transfer to oven and cook until eggs are set (~10 minutes).
10. If top is still wet, place under broiler for a minute or two.
11. Invert onto plate, cut into wedges, and serve.

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¹ The original recipe only called for 60g of feta, but I didn't think that looked like enough, so I bumped it up to 100g. In retrospect, 75g probably would have been sufficient, but I'm certainly not complaining about the extra! ^Back

Lemon-Ginger Pavlova with Strawberries and Sour Cream

It wouldn't have occured to me to mix sour cream into my lemon curd if the recipe hadn't called for it. I've seen recipes for lemon mousseline that have you fold whipped cream into lemon curd. So, I guess this isn't that different from a sweet mousseline. It just never really occurred to me to use sour cream instead. Honestly, I barely remember that mousseline is a thing most of the time!

All that being said... the sour cream, lemon, ginger, and strawberry combo worked really well! I think it would've been even nicer if I'd been able to get my hands on some of the tiny, intensely-flavoured alpine strawberries that were recommended by the recipe authors, but the regular grocery store strawberries were just fine (if somewhat less punchy).

I'm still kind of torn as to whether I preferred this pav or the apricot one. TF preferred this one. Reiver preferred the apricot one. I was expecting to like this one better, and it was very good, but I think the apricots may have come out slightly ahead for me. That said, it was a near enough thing that I think which one I like best really just comes down to how I'm feeling on the day. They are both excellent and I wouldn't turn either one down!

Lemon-Ginger Pavolva with Strawberries and Sour Cream

Slightly adapted from Delicious.com.au

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 200g sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Lemon-Ginger Curd

• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 140g sugar
• 80g unsalted butter
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tsp. ground ginger

Assembly

• 250mL sour cream
• 450g fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 6-8 slices candied ginger, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Combine egg whites and vinegar and whisk on increasing speeds until foamy.
3. Continue increasing speed gradually to high while adding the sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form.
5. Sprinkle over the cornstarch and mix in. Do not overmix!
6. Scoop the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and shape as desired.
7. Place in oven, immediately reduce heat to 120°C (250°F), and bake for 1 hour.
8. Turn oven off and leave pavlova in warm oven to cool for at least two hours or as long as overnight.
9. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar over low heat.
10. Cook, whisking constantly, for 8-10 minutes.
11. Mix in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and ginger.
12. Add the butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to whisk and cook over low heat.
13. Once thickened, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
14. Once cooled, stir the sour cream into the lemon curd.
15. Transfer the pavolva to a serving platter and spoon on the lemon curd mixture.
16. Top with the strawberries and candied ginger and serve.

I'd seen this recipe for salmon cakes as I was flipping through my cookbooks before. So when I saw a package of discount salmon off-cuts at the grocery store, I figured they'd be perfect for this. You can, of course, use a salmon fillet or something (as the recipe indicates). But, since you're going to be grinding it up anyway, I don't see any compelling reason not to use scraps and smaller pieces if that's what you have available.

These patties worked out quite well and were nice served over rice with a little soy sauce. Not a favourite for me, I think, but good nonetheless. I think they'd go particularly well with some braised bok choy, but stir-fried mixed veggies, steamed broccoli, or just about any other vegetable side will also work.

Salmon Cakes

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh ginger
• 2-3 green onions, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic (optional)
• 450g salmon fillet (or salmon scraps), chopped
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 large egg white
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted
• soy sauce, to serve
• sriracha or sambal olek, to serve
• lime wedges, to serve

Directions

1. Combine the ginger, green onions, and garlic in a food processor (or blender with "chop" setting). Process until finely chopped.
2. Sprinkle the salmon with the cornstarch and add it to the food processor along with the egg white, fish sauce, and salt. Process until coarsely ground. Do not over-process!
3. Divide the mixture into 4-8 equal portions (depending on how large you want your patties/cakes) and shape each into a disc.
4. If desired, cover and chill for 10-15 minutes to firm the patties up slightly.
5. Heat the oil over medium heat.
6. Add the patties and cook until browned on both sides and cooked through (~3 minutes per side).
7. Remove from heat and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
8. Serve over rice and top with soy sauce and hot sauce, passing lime wedges at the table.

This is an interesting cake: no leavener (beyon whipped egg whites), not too sweet, and with lots of pistachios in! It actually contains twice as much pistachio by volume as flour. The use of whipped egg whites/French meringue in the batter along with fat (in the form of melted butter) puts me in mind of a chiffon cake. But I feel like this has more flour than I'd normally expect in a chiffon. That said, I don't have enough experience with chiffon cakes to know for sure. Anyway, as noted, it's a nice, nutty cake that doesn't come out overly sweet.

Along with the pistachios, the batter incorporates a bit of vanilla and some orange zest for flavour. These were both very nice with it (although I didn't feel that the orange came through particularly strongly), but I think it would be interesting to try swapping out the vanilla for some rosewater next time. Not that I wasn't excellent the way it was, but pistachio and rose are such a classic combo that I'd really like to give it a try here. I actually ended up sprinkling a few rose petals on top before serving. Not enough to noticeably affect the flavour though; I just thought it needed a bit of decoration.

Pistachio-Orange Cake

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 2 c. (~250g) pistachios
• 1 1/4 c. sugar, divided
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. orange zest
• 6 large egg whites (~3/4 c.)
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (or rosewater)
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar and/or dried rose petals

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) and spread the pistachios out on a baking sheet.
2. Bake at 160°C (325°F) until toasted and fragrant (6-8 minutes), shaking the pan every 2 minutes. Transfer to plate to cool.
3. Increase oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23cm (9") springform pan.
4. Coarsely chop half of the pistachios. (A few quick pulses in a food processor works well for this.)
5. Transfer the chopped nuts to a bowl and set aside.
6. Add the remaining nuts to a food processor or blender along with 1/2 c. of the sugar and pulse until finely ground.
7. Add the flour and orange zest and pulse until mixed.
8. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt until foamy.
9. Add the vanilla and the remaining 3/4 c. of sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time while continuing to beat until stiff peaks form.
10. Quickly but gently fold the flour mixture into the meringue.
11. Add the butter and chopped pistachios and quickly fold those in as well.
12. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
13. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes.
14. Transfer to wire rack to cool for ~10 minutes.
15. Remove sides from springform pan and allow to cool for another few minutes.
16. Carefully remove cake from pan bottom and place on wire rack to finish cooling.
17. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with rose petals before serving.

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Variations

No Refined Sugar Pistachio-Rose Cake

I haven't had a chance to test this yet, but I think it would be interesting to try making this cake with powdered dates in place of granulated sugar. I'm not sure how well it would work for making the meringue, but I think it would be worth a try. I'd also be tempted to replace 1-2 Tbsp. of the butter with orange juice, just to amp up the orange flavour a bit (while also slightly reducing the fat). I know this wouldn't exactly turn this cake into health food, but it would hopefully make it a bit healier and maybe a little more diabetic-friendly. So, here we go!

Ingredients

• 2 c. (~250g) pistachios
• 1 1/4 c. powdered dates, divided
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. orange zest
• 6 large egg whites (~3/4 c.)
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. orange juice, divided
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (or rosewater)
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
• icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar and/or dried rose petals

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) and spread the pistachios out on a baking sheet.
2. Bake at 160°C (325°F) until toasted and fragrant (6-8 minutes), shaking the pan every 2 minutes. Transfer to plate to cool.
3. Increase oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23cm (9") springform pan.
4. Coarsely chop half of the pistachios. (A few quick pulses in a food processor works well for this.)
5. Transfer the chopped nuts to a bowl and set aside.
6. Add the remaining nuts to a food processor or blender along with 1/2 c. of the date powder and pulse until finely ground.
7. Add the flour and orange zest and pulse until mixed.
8. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt and 1 tsp. of the orange juice until foamy.
9. Add the vanilla and the remaining 3/4 c. of date powder 1 Tbsp. at a time while continuing to beat until stiff peaks form.
10. Quickly but gently fold the flour mixture into the meringue.
11. Add the butter, remaining orange 5 tsp. of juice, and chopped pistachios and quickly fold those in as well.
12. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
13. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes.
14. Transfer to wire rack to cool for ~10 minutes.
15. Remove sides from springform pan and allow to cool for another few minutes.
16. Carefully remove cake from pan bottom and place on wire rack to finish cooling.
17. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with rose petals before serving.

Pavlova has become my go-to for using up excess egg whites. So when I ran across this recipe in the Dessert of the Day cookbook, it was an easy choice.

I opted to make one large pavolva rather than several smaller ones and I added a little plain Greek yogurt to balance out the sweetness of the meringue and cherries. But other than that, I followed the recipe as written.

It was nice as is, but I think I would have actually preferred it with the cardamom and lime mixed into the meringue rather than combined with the cherries. I honestly might leave the syrup out altogether next time and just top the pav with some thawed frozen cherries and maybe a little icing sugar. Honestly, thinking about it more, I think it would be interesting to try topping it with different fruit as well. Don't get me wrong, I love cherries, but I'm not sure they're the best complement to the cardamom. I'd be tempted to try it with some canned mandarins instead. So, uh... here's the recipe for the cardamom-cherry pavlova and then I guess I'll write up my ideas for a cardamom-mandarin pavlova below that.

Cardamom-Cherry Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Toppings

• 20 green cardamom pods, lightly smashed
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. water
• 450g cherries, pitted and halved
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. icing sugar
• 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy.
3. Beat in the sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
5. Sift the cornstarch over the meringue and mix it in.
6. Scoop the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and form into a wide disc with a depression in the middle.
7. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 5 minutes.
8. Reduce temperature to 120°C (250°F) and bake for another hour.
9. Turn off oven and allow meringue to stand in oven overnight.
10. Meanwhile, combine the cardamom pods, sugar, and water and bring to a boil.
11. Reduce heat and simmer for ~5 minutes.
12. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
13. Combine syrup, cherries, lime juice, and lime zest. Set aside.
14. Beat whipping cream with vanilla extract and icing sugar until stiffened.
15. Top meringue with yogurt followed by whipped cream and cherries.
16. Serve immediately!

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Variations

Spiced Orange Pavlova

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Toppings

• 1 (540mL) can mandarin oranges
• 1 whole clove
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. icing sugar
• 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Beat egg whites with lime juice until foamy.
3. Mix in lime zest, cardamom, and vanilla.
4. Beat in sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time.
5. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
6. Sift cornstarch over the meringue and mix in.
7. Scoop onto prepared baking sheet and form into a disc with a depression in the middle.
8. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 5 minutes.
9. Reduce heat to 120°C (250°F) and bake for another hour.
10. Turn off oven and allow to cool in the oven overnight.
11. Meanwhile, simmer the oranges with the clove for a few minutes. Add a little extra sugar if you feel they need it.
12. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
13. Beat the cream with the vanilla and icing sugar until stiff.
14. Top the meringue with the yogurt, followed by the whipped cream and oranges.
15. Serve immediately.

I had initially been thinking of making pavlova with the leftover egg whites I had in the fridge, but after considering it for a bit, I decided that I wanted to try a different egg white recipe. These little chocolate meringue cookies looked pleasingly simple, so I decided to give them a go. They were a big hit with both TF and the Kidlet.

Spumette

From The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. hazelnuts
• 140g icing (confectioners'/powdered) sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder¹
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 large egg whites
• pinch (~1/16 tsp.) coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and bake hazelnuts for 8-10 minutes.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 150°C (300°F) and transfer nuts to a tea towel, let cool, and rub to remove the skins.
3. Separate the nuts from the skins and coarsely chop the nuts. Set aside.
4. Grease and flour 2-3 baking sheets.
5. Sift together the sugar, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.
6. Beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form.
7. Gently fold in the sugar mixture.
8. Add the nuts and fold those in as well.
9. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. (You should get 30-36 cookies.)
10. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for ~15 minutes. (Cookies should be dry to the touch, but still soft.)
11. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

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¹ I used "natural" cocoa powder for this, but feel free to experiment with alkalized (Dutched) cocoa powder if you like. ^Back

I got a bunch of potatoes for Thanksgiving and then didn't end up making any potato dishes at all that weekend. So I've been working on ways to use them up since then.

The veggie hash used up some, but I still had a bunch left. This frittata seemed like a nice way to put a dent in the remaining supply. It takes a while to get the potatoes nicely cooked, and I felt like the leeks may have over-cooked somewhat in that time, but they still produced a decent final result. Next time I might try doubling the leeks and adding them a little later in the cooking proess though. Still a very nice way to start the day.

Spanish Tortilla with Leeks

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 leeks
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 680g potatoes (preferably Yukon Gold), sliced ~3mm thick
• 1 clove garlic, sliced (optional)
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg whites
• salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Trim the root end and dark green leaves from the leeks. Halve or quarter the remaining leeks and wash well in a bowl of cold water. Make sure to get all the dirt and grit out! Remove from water and set aside.
2. Heat the oil over medium heat.
3. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
4. Add the leeks and garlic, mix well, and cook until potatoes are tender and somewhat browned (another 10 minutes or so).
5. Remove potato mixture from pan and set aside.
6. Beat the eggs with the egg white and a little salt.
7. Lightly grease the pan if it looks like it neds it.
8. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the egg mixture and the potato mixture.
9. Use a spatula or lifter to push the vegetables down and form an even surface with the potatoes at least mostly submerged in the egg.
10. Cook for ~5 minutes, then use a spatula to loosen the tortilla and check to see how brown the underside is. If it's well-browned already, you can try flipping your tortilla over. Otherwise, cook for another 3-5 minutes and then flip.
11. To flip the tortilla: Use a spatula to loosen it and then slide it out onto a plate, then invert onto another plate or back into the pan.
12. Continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes.
13. Cut into wedges and serve. May be served warm or room temperature.

I was in a bit of a hurry and messed this recipe up a bit. I saw that it called for either a spinach-parmesan or a cheddar cheese soufflé, so I just went ahead and made the soufflé as directed. It wasn't until I was halfway through making the soufflé (and had already asked TF to prepare the baking dish) that I noticed that it wanted you to make a bunch of small soufflés rather than one large one. Whoops!

I continued with my large soufflé. I figured it'd work out to about the same thing anyway. Just not as cute and visually appealing.

Unfortunately, again because I was in a hurry, I cut the baking time a little short and my soufflé had a bit of a sturcutral integrity issue when I was unmolding it. It wasn't the end of the world. It needed to go back in the oven again once the sauce and cheese went on anyway. But it did mean that the final dish wasn't very aesthetic.

I've included a photo of my fail soufflé here, just to have something. But please be aware that this isn't what it's actually meant to look like.

Twice-Baked Soufflé in Tomato-Cream Sauce

Slightly adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 1 recipe soufflé batter for spinach-parmesan soufflé
• 1/2 c. table (18%) cream¹
• 1 (400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. grated Gruyère or fontina

Directions

1. DO NOT BAKE THE SOUFFLÉ AS DIRECTED IN THE RECIPE.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and generously grease six ramekins² and "flour" them with dry breadcrumbs. Put a kettle on to boil.
3. Divide the soufflé mixture among the ramekins.
4. Run a fingertip around the inside rim of each soufflé.
5. Place a roasting pan or similar large, deep dish in the oven and place the soufflés in it.
6. Carefully pour boiling water into the pan so that it comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
7. Bake until the soufflés are puffed and brown on top (35-40 minutes).
8. Remove from oven and let stand in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
9. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature. The soufflés will shrink. This is normal.
10. Run a spatula around the sides of each soufflé and turn them out.
11. Place, browned-side-up, in a large baking dish (or individual gratin dishes).
12. Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake again.
13. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
14. Meanwhile, combine the cream and tomatoes and bring to a boil.
15. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the basil.
16. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes.
17. Stir in the slat and pepper and remove from heat.
18. Spoon the sauce over the soufflés.
19. Sprinkle the tops with the grated cheese.
20. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes.
21. Serve immediately!

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¹ The original recipe calls for 1 c. heavy cream and 1 c. diced tomatoes. I ended up using ~3/4 c. heavy cream + ~1/4 c. 1% milk and ~400mL diced tomatoes. It was delicious like this, but I think it would've been fine with a bit less cream, so I've adjusted it down a bit here. ^Back
2 The recipe calls for six 5-oz. (~150mL) or four 8-oz. (~240mL) ramekins. This doesn't seem like it would provide enough volume though since the soufflé recipe produces enough batter to fill a 6-cup (~1.4L) baking dish. I would think you'd need six 8-oz. ramekins, not four! So... uh, proceed with caution, I guess. ^Back

Someone shared their method of making sourdough okonomiyaki in a bread forum a while back and I jotted the recipe down for future use. It's similar to my existing okonomiyaki recipe. The main differences being that this one contains neither oil nor soy sauce (just salt and pepper). It also includes leavener, which my previous recipe did not. And, of course, sourdough starter replaces the flour and water in the original.

All-in-all it worked pretty well. I used kale, shredded carrots, green onion, smoked tofu, and a little bit of frozen "spaghetti mix" for mine, but you could easily change up both the protein and the veggies depending on what you feel like or what you have available.

Suggested veggies (~2 1/2 c.): kale, spinach, cabbage, brussels sprouts, onion, bell pepper, shishito pepper, green onion/scallion, carrots, mustard greens, corn, cremini or shiitake mushrooms
Suggested proteins (60-120g): tofu, smoked tofu, Chinese sausage, hotdog, tinned tuna, SPAM, poached chicken or turkey, back bacon

Sourdough Okonomiyaki

Ingredients

• 280g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration
• 1 large egg (or 1 small egg + 1 egg white)
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt¹, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1-2 Tbsp. water or milk
• 1-2 carrots, grated (probably ~1 c. total)
• 1 c. frozen chopped kale
• 1/4 c. frozen "spaghetti mix"
• 3 chopped green onions
• ~75g diced smoked tofu
• soy sauce, mayo, hoisin sauce, and/or furikake, to serve

Directions

1. Combine starter, egg, cornstarch, salt, pepper, and baking soda and mix well.
2. Adjust consistency with water (or milk) to form a thin batter.
3. Mix in the veggies and tofu (or protein of your choice).
4. Heat pan over medium heat.
5. Lightly grease or spray pan with cooking spray and pour in ~1/3 of the batter. Spread it out thin. This should form a large (~25cm/10") pancake.
6. Cook until underside has begun to lightly brown, bubbles form, and top begins to set.
7. Carefully flip the pancake over and cook until the other side and browned slightly and pancake is cooked through.
8. Remove from heat and repeat process with remaining batter.
9. Serve pancakes topped with soy sauce, mayo, hoisin sauce, and/or furikake.

---

¹ I may consider replacing the salt with dasida next time. I have a bunch that I need to use up and I think it could be a nice flavour. ^Back

I've been trying to come up with different healthy breakfast ideas. My problem is that I get bored pretty easily, so I don't like to have the same thing too many days in a row. And I also want my breakfasts to be filling. I hate it when I eat breakfast only to feel hungry again half an hour later.

To that end, oatmeal is generally out. People always talk about how filling oatmeal is -- how it's a good stick-to-your-ribs breakfast that keeps you feeling full -- but I've never found it to be so. Oatmeal can be really tasty, but even if I have a big bowl of it, I'm ALWAYS hungry ~20 minutes later. Very disappointing. I still eat oatmeal occasionally becuase I do like it. I just wish that it didn't mean either feeling ravenously hungry for half the day or accepting that I'll need to have second breakfast halfway through the morning.

So, oatmeal is a sometimes food, but not a good breakfast go-to for me. Eggs in various forms have been a pretty good bet lately. I had scrambled eggs with feta and spinach for a few days. Then egg salad on bread. Then I switched to salmon salad for a few days. And now I've finished off all of those and I was on the hunt for some new breakfast options.

I probably should have made some sourdough okonomi yaki this morning. But I was feeling extremely tired and flattened and I've also been craving chocolate a lot lately so, in the end, I went with some purportedly healthy chocolate waffles instead.

I will grant that these waffles have very little added sugar. And almost no added fat. So they have that going for them. Unfortunately they are also incredibly bitter. Like, pretty much inedibly so.

The author said that she deliberately didn't add much sweetener to the recipe because she knows how much syrup her family drowns their waffles in, but... man, the amount of syrup these need to be palateable pretty much negates their healthfulness.

I've modified the recipe a bit. I haven't had a chance to test this (hopefully) improved version yet. But I'm optimistic that these changes will cut some of the bitterness without reducing the healthfulness of the recipe.

My first idea was to swap out some of the cocoa powder for powdered peanut butter. I figured that less cocoa == less bitter. And while, yes, that will also mean less chocolate flavour, I'm hoping that replacing some of the chocolate with peanut butter will still result in something pleasingly tasty, even if it is less chocolate-y.

The second change isn't so much a change as a restoration. I normally halve the salt most recipes. I did that here as well. But I think maybe it would be best to keep the original quantity of salt as salt also helps to mask bitterness in food.

And finally -- and this one is probably the riskiest -- I think I'd like to try swapping out the natural cocoa powder for Dutch-processed cocoa. The recipe author gives dire warnings against doing this because of the difference in pH and because natural cocoa powder has a stronger chocolate flavor than Dutched¹. This recipe contains a lot of baking soda, so switching from acidic natural cocoa powder to neutral Dutch-processed is a bit risky. That said, there is also a massive quantity of vinegar in the batter. Way more than I would've thought necessary to react with 2 tsp. of baking soda. So, I suspect that I will be able to get away with the swap here. But I haven't tested that theory yet. If I can though, that should also help cut the bitterness. We'll see how it goes...

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Waffles

Adapted from Amy's Healthy Baking

Ingredients

• 150g whole wheat flour
• 60g Dutched cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. peanut butter powder (de-fatted peanut flour)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. coconut oil, melted
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1/2 c. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. vinegar
• 3/4 c. milk
• 5 Tbsp. water

Directions

1. Get your waffle iron out and start it preheating.
2. Meanwhile, combine flour, cocoa, peanut flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
3. In a separate (large) bowl, combine the coil, egg whites, vanilla, maple syrup, yogurt, vinegar, and milk and mix well.
4. Add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined.
5. Mix in ~2 Tbsp. of the water followed by half the remaining dry ingredients.
6. Mix in the remaining 3 Tbsp. of water followed by the remaining dry ingredients.
7. Scoop the batter into your waffle maker and cook according to the instructions for your model.
8. Carefully remove waffles from waffle iron and set on wire rack.
9. Serve with syrup, jam, yogurt, fresh fruit, and/or peanut butter fluff².

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¹ Interestingly, I was always told the opposite: that Dutched cocoa was both darker and carried a richer, deeper chocolate flavour than natural. Now I don't know who was right. But, either way, the point about the pH is relevant regardless of what the flavour is like. ^Back
2 I actually made a slightly variant on the original peanut butter fluff recipe to top my waffle with. I'm trying to keep things low calorie, so I replaced the peanut butter with powdered peanut butter (same volume, but 1/2 c. of peanut flour is equivalent to roughly 1/4 c. of actual peanut butter, so I effectively halved the peanut butter). I also swapped out the honey for Splenda since we have a bit left and it should be used up anyway. I think the Splenda gives it a weird flavour. It's not my favourite sweetener. I'm just trying to use up what we have because I don't want to throw it out. Might try the new monk fruit sweetener or some stevia at some point in the future and see if I like that any better. But the Splenda was good enough to get the job done today. ^Back

I've been wanting to try this recipe for ages. But I don't often have the wherewithal to make waffles in the morning. And between that and the fact that I kept forgetting the recipe existed, it's just been languishing in my bookmarks for ages. But I actually took some time to flip through bookmarked pages that weren't sourdough recipes last night -- shocking, I know! -- and rediscovered this recipe and figured maybe it was time.

Sadly, we were low on molasses, so the flavour wasn't quite as intense as it was meant to be. They were still quite tasty though. The Kidlet packed away three before she finally deicded she was full, so that seems like it was a success. I might try to put even more ginger into them next time (this change is reflected in the recipe below), but other than that, they were pretty great. Although I'm not sure how much the orange really came through, so I've listed that as optional. I think they'd still be great even without the orange.

Gingerbread Waffles

Slightly adapted from Vurrata and Bubbles

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 c. butter, melted
• 1/2 c. molasses
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• zest of 1 orange (optional)
• 4 large egg whites

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt and mix well, breaking up and lumps of sugar.
2. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix them in.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, egg yolks, butter, molasses, vanilla extract, and orange zest (if using).
4. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks.
5. Stir dry ingredients into wet.¹
6. Get your waffle iron preheating.
7. Add ~1/3 of the egg whites to the batter and stir them in. (Don't worry about deflating them at this point, we're just loosening the batter.)
8. Add half the remaining egg whites and gently fold them in.
9. Add the last portion of egg whites and fold them in.
10. Scoop portions of batter into your waffle maker and cook as directed.
11. Serve waffles with custard and/or maple syrup and/or ginger syrup and/or whipped cream.

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¹ I actually did this backwards and stirred wet ingredients into dry. Not sure how much of a difference it makes. ^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

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

Between making pasta and making tiramisu, I had seven excessed egg whites that needed to be used up. I figured that some sort of pavlova or angel food cake would be the best choice. (I debated doing a dacquoise, but I opted for the simplicity of the pavlova in the end.) I've done pavlovas before, but I wanted to try a different flavour combo. So I hit up the Internet to look for ideas.

There were a few interesting contenders, but I liked the look of this cherry one. It seemed relatively light and very easy to put together. I liked the idea of topping the meringue with yogurt rather than pastry cream or custard. And I was intrigued by the passionfruit-cherry combination.

The original recipe called for "good quality passionfruit yogurt". I couldn't get any that I felt would be "good quality", so I opted for a very nice plain yogurt instead and then just added some fresh passionfruit on top. I only got one passionfruit this time as I wasn't sure what to expect from it. TM didn't feel that the passionfruit really brought much to the table and thought that it would've been just as good without it. I do think that it was pretty subtle, but I enjoyed its presence. I think if I were to do this one again I'd just double down on it: get two or three passionfruit next time!

Spiced Cherry Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Taste

Ingredients

Meringue

• 6 large egg whites
• 330g sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar¹ (optional)

Cherries

• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. cointreau
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1 (8cm) cinnamon stick
• 400g pitted cherries
• 1/4 c. lemon juice

Assembly

• 2 c. very good plain Greek yogurt
• 2-3 passionfruit

Directions

Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.
2. Add egg whites to a scrupulously clean bowl and begin beating with clean beaters.
3. After 30-60 seconds of beating on high, add ~1 Tbsp. of the sugar.
4. Continue beating on high and adding sugar ~1 Tbsp. at a time until all of the sugar has been incorporated.
5. Beat in the cornflour.
6. Beat in the vanilla.
7. Beat in the cream of tartar (if using).
8. Beat for another minute or so. The meringue is done when it forms stiff peaks and stays in place when the bowl is inverted. If it holds its shape but slides along the bowl, it's not quite done yet. Be careful not to overbeat as it will break and go watery.
9. Spoon the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and shape it into a circle with a deep depression in the middle. Aim for around 20-23cm in diameter. Make the depression a bit deeper than you think it needs to be.
10. Bake on the bottom rack at 120°C (250°F) for 90 minutes.
11. Turn off oven, but keep the door closed and leave the meringue in the oven overnight.

Cherries

1. Heat sugar, cointreau, lemon zest, and cinnamon over medium heat and cook for ~5 minutes.
2. Add the cherries and lemon juice and bring back up to a simmer. Cook for 1 minute more.
3. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to eat.

Assembly

1. Spoon the yogurt into the centre of the meringue.
2. Cut open the passionfruit and scoop the seeds out onto the yogurt.
3. Pour the cherry compote over this.
4. Serve immediately.

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¹ I usually add a bit of cream of tartar to my meringues, but this time I decided to use a bit of vinegar to wipe down the beaters and the bowl. This helps cut any grease residue that might be on them. Afterward, I dumped out the excess vinegar, but did not dry the beaters or the bowl. I figured the bit of acid this added would be similar to the acidifying effect of cream of tartar. ^Back