Valentine's Pavlova

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I had 
to have a dessert or two to celebrate.
I decided a heart-shaped pavlova with 
gorgeous red fruit would be perfect, 
and beautiful!

A pavlova is a meringue crust with a 
soft filling, like sweetened whipped cream,
and is usually topped with fresh fruit.  
I have shared a couple of other pavlova's 
over the years.  One is a Christmas one with 
peppermint that is a family favorite.  

Now mind you, we are still staying in 
Cabo, and so the hunt for my ingredients 
began.  I stood in the store with my 
limited Spanish (it gets me around, but 
ingredients can be new) and looked up 
"Fecula de maiz" and sure enough it 
was cornstarch.  We have found a couple 
of grocery stories that we really love, 
La Comer and Fresko, and La Comer 
had what they called a gourmet area, where 
I readily recognized Cream of Tartar.  I 
was surprised and thrilled.  I could have 
substituted vinegar, but even with vinegar, 
there just isn't a big selection here. 

I have made meringues with regular sugar rather 
than super-fine, but the sugar here in Mexico 
is super coarse - as in my chocolate chip cookies 
have a crunch from the sugar.  So I decided to 
whirl the sugar around in my blender and got 
some pretty nice super-fine sugar.  
As you can tell, things are a little more 
complicated here and the Mexican culture's 
taste in baked goods is different than ours.  
Our builder's wife immediately told me I 
would need to import flour as theirs is softer 
than cake flour, but we found a little organic 
store close by that carries King Arthur flour. 

I am not sure I can bake without parchment 
paper, so I brought a supply down with me.  
To make the heart, I folded the parchment 
paper in half and made half a heart, then 
turned it over and copied the other side.  
Then I made sure to turn my parchment 
paper over to the back side so that I didn't 
end of with markings on the back of my 
meringue - yes I have had that happen before.  

With the leftover meringue I piped 
some smaller hearts for accents. 

Meringue is really fun and easy and I haven't 
met someone who didn't love that melt in 
your mouth texture.  
Pavlova Recipe
Heat oven to 230 degrees.  Line pan with 
parchment paper.  
Start with a squeaky clean mixer bowl and 
whip.  Whip 4 room-temperature egg whites 
(with not a speck of yolk in them) until soft 
peaks form.  Then spoon 1 C. of super-fine 
sugar in, one heaping tablespoon at a time.  
Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl as 
needed.  The meringue will get glossy 
white and beautiful.  After you have 
added all of the sugar - don't rush this - 
beat in 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and 
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar that 
have been blended together with a fork. 
Continue to beat until 
the sugar crystals are almost gone - test 
by rubbing a little between your fingers.  
Spoon the meringue onto the parchment 
paper within your design.  Swirl it and 
make it beautiful using the back of a spoon.  
Use the remaining 
meringue to create meringue cookies if 
desired. 
Place the pan into a 230 F oven for 80 minutes.  
Then turn off the heat and allow to stay in the 
oven for at least two hours or even overnight.  
I took mine out after several hours and let 
it cool, then covered it with plastic wrap 
so I could assemble it the next day.  

Top it with whipped cream or whatever filling 
you desire and then the fruit.  Refrigerate 
until served.  I like it to sit for a while to 
help soften the meringue, but then I would 
top it later with the fruit.  
This pavlova turned out so beautiful and 
white - I think it loved the Cabo climate!  Haha.

 

Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova 

Spring Berry Pavlova

I hope you have a lovely 
Valentine's Day.
Thanks for stopping by.  Give this a try, 
it will melt in your mouth. 

 

Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova

Chocolate and peppermint just speak Christmas

to me, so when I first had this fabulous dessert,

I had to make it myself.  I made this and blogged

about it a couple of years ago, but this one is even

more Christmas party worthy, that I had to

blog about it.

The recipe originally came from

Williams Sonoma but

here is my adapted recipe.  It really is

easy to make, but does take a little time.  I

actually recipes like that for when I want a

shopwstopper of a dessert. 

Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova

Meringue Rounds

12 egg whites, room temperature

3 1/2 C. sugar

2 T. cornstarch

1 T. lemon juice

1 T. vanilla extract

Place parchment paper on two really large

baking pans.  Draw 7 inch circles on the paper.

The meringues will grow so don't have them

too close together.  On my large pans I could

do 3.  My pans are 15x21.  (If you don't have

that big of a pan, you could do this process half

at a time, whipping only six of the egg whites

at a time, and then baking and repeating, but

I don't want to spend that much time waiting around.)

In a clean bowl - free from any oils, whip the

egg whites until stiff peaks just begin to form,

then slowly incorporate the sugar mixed with the cornstarch,

 about a tablespoon

at a time, and continue to do this (takes a while) until

all the sugar is incorporated. The egg whites should be 

stiff and glossy.  Remove the whip attachment and fold

in the lemon juice and the vanilla.

Spoon a couple of large dollops

on the circles, and spread the meringue almost to the

edge with a spoon and flatten out the top

with a spatula.  Try to not have any real thin edges

or spots.

I did three per pan, as these are fragile and you

might have one or two break.

Bake at 200 for 1 1/2 hours.  Turn off oven

and let meringue sit in oven for

another hour.  Remove from oven

and place pan on rack and let cool, then peel

off the paper gently, using a spatula to help

lift them.

(I have since changed this from their recipe. 

 The original recipe had

you bake the meringues for 1 hour at 300 degrees

and then remove them immediately.  That caused

the meringues to be browner than I wanted and

caused a lot of cracking.  The longer time at a

lower temperature gave me white meringues with

little or no cracking.

Chocolate Ganache

Heat 2 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream in

the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes or until

scalded.  Pour over 3 1/2 C. semi sweet chocolate

chips.  Let sit for a couple of minutes to melt the

chocolate, then whisk until smooth.  Place the bowl

in the freezer for a couple of minutes, then give the

chocolate a whisk.  The ganache is going to begin to

cool around the edges and you want to whisk it all 

together.  Keep doing this until it is a soft spreading

consistency, like pudding.  This is a quick way to

cool the ganache down.

Meanwhile chop 10-12 oz. of peppermint

bark.  I used Ghiradelli's.

Place a dollop of ganache on your cake platter.

Lift a meringue round with the help of a spatula

and center it on your cake plate.

Spoon 1/4th of the ganache almost to the edge of

the meringue layer.  Sprinkle about 1/4 of your

peppermint bark on top of the layer.  Repeat three

more times.  (William's Sonomas called for 5

layers, but I ran out of ganache and this is plenty tall.)

The meringues will crumble and break around the

edges as you cut it to serve, but no one will care

because this is out of this world delish!

Use some shards of the peppermint bark

to decorate the top.

I wanted this one a little special, so I decided to add

some glittering truffle balls.  These are just 

Lindt truffles that I glitterized.

For the gold, dip a soft bristled brush in clear vanilla,

almond, or lemon juice and then into your gold

luster dust and paint the truffle.

For the pink, paint your truffle with clear vanilla 

and then sprinkle disco dust over the vanilla.  It

will stick to the vanilla.

The last bit of decoration I added were white

chocolate wings.  Simply melt some white chocolate

discs and smear some on parchment paper using

the back of your spoon.  Sprinkle crushed candy or

sugar while the chocolate is still wet.  Place in the

fridge to harden.

Absolutely heavenly!  This one is worth the time

and effort.

Christmas memories in a bite!!

I will be posting this with

Pink Saturday

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Pavlova

'Tis the Season for rich and delicious

desserts and this Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova

is the perfect Christmas or winter dessert.

Each bite has the moist crunch of meringue with

the rich smoothness of chocolate ganache and

the flavor punch of peppermint bark. 

Wow, this just screams celebration!! 

My friend Rachel made this for a dinner party

last week and hubby and I kept having visions

of Pavlova dance in our heads  - so I made

it myself for a dinner invitation last night.

The recipe comes from Williams-Sonoma.

Click here for complete instructions.

I made a few minor changes to the preparation.

Rather than letting the melted chocolate and cream

mix sit and cool for two hours (way too long for

my patience) I put them in a large mixing bowl

and beat them with the whisk attachment until 

the mixture became like a soft pudding.  When

you can spoon the ganache onto the meringue,

it is ready to use.  This only takes a few

minutes on high.

Have all of your ingredients

ready as the ganache can cool rapidly.  

I also baked all of my meringues

at once, and only shaped them to 8 inches

each as they will grow.  I did two pans in

my big oven and one in the little but it ended

up that I didn't use the fifth layer as I ran 

out of ganache.

If you can't get WS's Peppermint Bark,

Ghiradelli makes a great one or whip up

a quick batch of your own. 

I used a combination of Jensen's and Ghiradelli's

for mine because that was what I had on hand.

This could also

be made with Ande's Mints or you could

change it to almond - so many possibilities!!

This isn't just a Christmas dessert.

The Pavlova is delicate and cracks easily 

so handle it with care.  You would think it

would be difficult to slice and serve, but use

a serrated knife to cut it.  You want it room

temperature to cut it or the ganache will

be too hard.

Layer after layer of light and moist

meringue cuts the richness of the

ganache.  Oh, the texture combination

is fantastic!  The peppermint flavor 

comes just from the peppermint bark so

it isn't too minty.

This is one of those desserts that takes 

some time for prep but is worth it.

This is one of those desserts that

depicts

"dreams of sugarplums dancing in their heads".

We give this a ten thumbs up!

I will be posting this with 

Foodie Friday

Pink Saturday