3 Egg Pavlova

For some reason people are scared of making a “pav” but they are really simple as long as you follow a few easy steps. The first is to make sure your egg whites don’t contain any yolk as they won’t whip properly if they do. Easiest way to do this is to crack each egg into a seperate bowl so if you break one yolk you don’t contaminate all the whites. Next only use a glass or stainless steel bowl for whipping the whites, never plastic. Also, make sure the bowl is absolutely clean, you can if you like wipe out the bowl with a cut lemon to make sure. The next trick is too cool the pavlova completely in the turned off oven with the door slightly ajar. I use a wooden spoon in the door to keep it slightly open. Recipe is adapted from the Women’s Weekly original cookbook.

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites, preferably at room temperature
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 300 ml cream, whipped
• Strawberries, topped and quartered
• 1 Flake crushed

Directions

Preheat your oven to 160°C fan forced (increase temperature 20° if not fan forced). Place the egg white in the bowl and beat until soft peaks form.

Now beat in the caster sugar a heaped dessert spoon at a time beating between each spoonful. Continue until all the sugar is incorporated and the mix is thick and glossy. The caster sugar should be totally dissolved into the mix. Test by rubbing a small amount between your fingers and if it’s grainy continue to mix. Add in the cornflour (3 tsp), vanilla extract (1 tsp) and lemon juice (1 tsp) and mix to combine.

On a sheet of baking paper trace around a plate approximately 18cm in diameter. Place the baking paper on an oven tray pencil or pen side down. You should still be able to see the outline. Heap on the pavlova mix and smooth out to the edges no need to be too fussy here.

Put the pavlova into the preheated oven and immediately turn the oven down to 120°C (fan forced) and cook for 1 hour. After an hour turn off the oven, leaving the door a little ajar until the pavlova is cool.

Remove from the oven and invert onto a serving plate. Top with the whipped cream, strawberries and crumbled flake.

The inverting trick is one from Stephanie Alexander (and in her words) the marshmallow melds with the cream and the sides and the base stay crisp. Obviously feel free to change up the choice of toppings. Passionfruit pulp is lovely, a family favourite is crushed up Peppermint Crisp chocolate bars. As always please leave me a comment to let me know how you got on or even with your families favourite pavlova topping. Enjoy. Sheryl xx