As the the produce shelves become filled with berries and fruits from closer locations my mind wanders to some of my favorite desserts featuring fresh fruits.
One of my all time favorite desserts featuring fruit is the classic Pavlova, step~by~step, it is a beautiful thing to prepare with ease. One of the most important rules that was reinforced for me while managing baked goods at Starbucks was the importance of texture, combined with flavor and freshness, when it comes to presenting a great dessert. This product excels in each of these categories. The meringues are crispy and chewy and have a poignant touch of orange blossom water. They are topped with freshly whipped cream… luscious, rich, fresh and very lightly sweetened. This heady combo is topped with your fruit of choice, here I am featuring local Washington strawberries with a {ridiculously simple} brown sugar sauce. The recipe is below, but to see my entire original post on this positively pleasing dessert, click on party pavlovas.
This is also a great dessert to take on the road, because the separate parts can be thrown together with ease just before serving. Here’s a shot of the kit I brought to a friends house for a Father’s day barbecue, including baked meringues, sweetened strawberries, whipped cream and spearmint sprigs for garnish.
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I baked the meringues in the morning {but I made them in my convection oven, so I think the temperature did not drop as quickly as it does in my conventional oven when I reduced it after putting the trays in, which why they’re a little more golden than usual, more details below}.
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| how the meringues usually look. |
An important tip I’d suggest for the strawberries is to sweeten them with brown sugar. Mine was a little lumpy, but I layered the lumps in with the berries.
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By the time I served it 2-3 hours later, the juices from the berries had melted the brown sugar and had created the most superb sauce.
Note: the next couple of images were taken from my iphone, apologies for the quality, but they do convey the idea..here’s the resulting sauce… absolute deliciousness!!
Here is one of the finished products, garnished with a sprig of spearmint. On a side note of caution, I love growing mint so that I always have it available for situations like this, but any type of mint is an aggressive invader, so I recommend growing it in a pot. Personally, I prefer the flavor of spearmint, as opposed to peppermint, because it is more mellow and complex. I also like the deeper shade of green that the spearmint offers.
Meringues
yield: 8 meringues, can easily be doubled.
{for a step~by~step with photos, click on meringues}
{for a step~by~step with photos, click on meringues}
8 large egg whites
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons vinegar
3 teaspoons orange blossom water
2-1/2 cups whipping cream
fruit for garnish (raspberries, blueberries, sliced strawberries)
During the holidays pomegranate jewels are splendid choice!
Adjust oven racks to accommodate 3 baking trays. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place silpats (silicon sheets that make removing the desserts and clean up much easier) on each baking tray (in place of silpats, parchment paper can be used).
Beat egg whites on a high speed until soft peaks form.
Continue beating and slowly add the sugar {you can turn off the beater before adding sugar}.
Beat until the mixture becomes thick and glossy and holds a stiff peak.
Sprinkle in the cornstarch, vinegar, orange blossom water and fold in lightly.
Scoop out large spoonfuls of the egg whites mixture and drop them onto the prepared trays. Use the backside of the spoon to create a little indentation in the mound, leave any fun curls or waves in place.
Sidenote: Meringues can also be enjoyed without the cream and berries, in which case you can skip the indentations, and leave them shaped as mounds with a curled peak.
Slide the trays in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes and then turn off the heat. Leave in the oven for another 2 hours as the oven cools (or until you need them).
I recommend checking on the meringues while baking, if you are using a convection oven or if the calibration is off, they may cook/ brown more quickly.
The meringues will emerge from the oven looking similar to how they entered, but there will be a slightly golden, crunchy, flaky shell surrounding the soft, and a marvelous chewy mixture inside.
They will spread if the humidity is high.
They will spread if the humidity is high.
Peel the meringues from the sheet and store in an airtight container until ready to serve (they can be stored for up to a week, but should really be consumed earlier).
When ready to serve, whip the cream until very thick. Put each meringue on a dessert plate. Use a large spoon to drop a large dollop of the whipped cream over the indentation (it is good to have cream spilling out of the indentation). Top with a scattering of berries, sliced fruit or pomegranate jewels.
For easy service, place a dessert fork on the side of each plate.
Flavor variations: in place of the orange blossom water in the meringues, try vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon extract or rosewater.
For a printable version of this recipe, click on the foodista button:
Emily, thank you for this reminder about pavlovas!
My first introduction was from Nigella Lawson's cookbook where she makes one large meringue and cuts it into pieces to serve. I have so much fruit right now – and weekend company coming – I'll be making one tomorrow. 🙂
Cheers!