Citrus and Berries Vol. II

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After the success of my previous citrus and berries dessert I couldn’t get enough of the curd – I had a craving which I needed to satisfy. Almost as though I were pregnant… HAHA… definitely not the case. Anyways…. I have also never made a pavlova. What a great excuse to make both – pavlova topped with lemon curd. Sounds like pure perfection to moi.

This is actually the first time ever that I have attempted to make meringue. I was determined to make it early on during the day so if it failed I still had enough time to  quickly pop to the shops and buy replacements…… sadly sunshine and birthday bubblies kidnapped any sense of time I had and suddenly dinner was only 2 hours away. And no meringues to be seen. AAAHHHHHH. I took a deep breath, one last sip of bubblies, found this extremely helpful guide guide and switched into my Emergency Room efficiency mode. My meringues were saved.

Mini Pavlova with Lemon Curd and Berries

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serves 6

You’ll need

6 egg whites
1 small pinch of salt
300 grams caster sugar
4g cornflour
0.5 seeds from a vanilla pod (optional)
3/4 tsp white wine vinegar
Lemon Curd – using 4 eggs, you’ll find the recipe in my previous post
Berries, ca. 500g mix of strawberries and raspberries

  1. To make the meringue, heat the oven to 120°C fan. Line a baking tray with a sheet of baking paper. Put the egg whites into a bowl and start to whisk. Add the salt and whisk to soft peaks.
  2. Whisk in the vinegar and slowly sift in the cornflour.
  3. Add the caster sugar slowly, bit by bit, continuing to whisk until the meringue thickens. Split and scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod, and add the vanilla seeds and whisk to stiff peaks. Be careful not to “overwhisk” the your egg whites – then you’ll be trying to create stiff peaks for hours!
  4. Create 6 equal sized mounds of meringue using about 3/4 of your mixture. Fill a piping bag with the rest and creatively pipe edges around mounds, making pavlova shapes. Bake for about 1 hour. Once the hour is up, turn the oven off and let the meringues cool with the oven door open.
  5. While the meringue is baking you can make your lemon curd and chop your berries.
  6. To serve: divide the meringues among 6 plates, top each with a generous helping of lemon curd and some berries. Dust with some icing sugar and serve immediately.

Rating: 8.5/10

Next time I think I should lighten up the lemon curd with a bit of whipped cream….. even for me this was a tad too intense.

P.S. Instead of wasting the 6 egg yolks – poach them for about 45s in boiling water and serve on top of a salmon/avocado salad. NOM.

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