Anzac Day pavlova

On Anzac Day we honour the Australians and New Zealanders who fought side by side at Gallipoli. But the Aussies and the Kiwis are not always allies. Apart from the good-natured banter involving sheep, many epic battles have waged on the sports fields . Nowhere is the battle more fierce than that fought over the ownership of that classic dessert, the pavlova. In order to find out the truth I turned to the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia. That seemed to be firmly in the New Zealand camp so I kept searching and finally came up with an explanation that will suit all parties

Yes I will concede that New Zealanders first developed the recipe for a meringue cake. However it wasn’t until Perth chef Bert Sachse from the Esplanade Hotel developed the Pavlova in honour of the ballerina Anna Pavlova, that the name and recipe become more widely known around the world. Australia 1 New Zealand 1 !!

I have always been rather daunted by the prospect of making a pav, but inspired by the Dawn Service and in true Anzac spirit I decided to have a go. I was actually surprised at how easy it was, whip up the egg whites and sugar,

Whip up egg whites and sugar until peaks form

add the cornflour (Nurses Cornflour of course!) and vinegar to make it chewy in the middle

Nurse Cornflour, the only cornflour to use

and the vanilla for flavouring, and Bob’s your uncle!!

I wasn’t keen on the part where you had to pile the meringue on the oven tray, it was very sticky, and what does “make furrows up the sides” mean anyway?

My oven is quite fierce and I hate wishy washy directions that sit on the fence, like “Cook for an hour and 15 minutes or until firm to touch” Be decisive with directions I say to the writers of recipes, don’t flip flop around trying to wriggle out of responsibility for the success of the dish! Anyway I cooked it for just under an hour, it seemed to feel quite firm and was getting rather brownish so I figured that was enough cooking. As directed I left the pav to cool in the oven with the door slightly ajar. When I popped it back in the oven after inspection it was quite high and puffy, although I was disappointed that the shell had cracked in quite a few places. By the time the meringue had cooled it was less puffy and more cracked and I was more disappointed.

My friend Cindy sat me down gave me a good talking to. She told me I shouldn’t be worrying about the cracks, I should be dressing it with cream and fruit, and serve it knowing I had made an awesomely delicious dessert and I would win the praises and accolades of all who tasted it!!

And do you what? She was right!! I was really proud of it. It looked amazing, thank you Cindy for decorating it, the meringue was soft and melt in your mouth and the shell was crisp and crunchy, there were lots of oohs and aahs when I served it, it was awesomely delicious, and no-one looked at it and commented on the cracks in the shell!

The meringue was so soft and melt in your mouth

And despite the fact that we had just eaten a delicious duck roast dinner, we managed to demolish one Anzac Day Pavlova in very short time. I think an Anzac Day tradition has been born – Dad’s duck and Patricia’s pav!

I used the Kiwi passionfruit pavlova from taste.com.au, the only changes I made were using strawberries instead of passionfruit and it definitely needed 600ml, not 300 ml of cream. If there had been passionfruit available I would have used that as well

KIWI and STRAWBERRY PAVLOVA

Ingredients

6 eggwhites
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
600ml thickened cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar mixture
4 kiwifruit, peeled, sliced
2 strawberries, halved

Method

Preheat oven to 120°C/100°C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Mark a 22cm circle on the paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat egg-whites until stiff peaks form. Add caster sugar. Beat for 10 minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Add cornflour, vinegar and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute. Spoon mixture onto circle. Using a palette knife, shape into a circle with high sides. Make furrows up sides.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool completely in oven with door slightly ajar.
Using an electric mixer, beat cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form. Place pavlova on a plate. Spread with cream mixture. Top with kiwifruit and strawberries. Serve to great applause!

All in all I was pretty proud of myself. Although I would appreciate any tips on making pavlova, especially around the cracking of the shell. Although I suspect the fact that I opened the oven a couple of times to heat up the Anzac Day football Mrs Mac’s pies may have had something to do with it!!