I’ve been wanting to make a Pavlova for ever. I’ve just always thought it looked like it would be so time consuming and being a mom of two small children, I just couldn’t see having the time (or patience). That was until just a few days ago. I bought two pounds of strawberries and decided I was going to give it a try. I can’t believe I haven’t made one sooner. They really are simple to put together. The most time consuming part was waiting for the meringue to bake for an hour or so. Though that wasn’t a problem. It gave me time to do other things while it baked.
Australians love to say they were the first to make this dessert while New Zealanders love to say it was their creation. I won’t be getting involved in that argument but I can see why they are so keen on claiming it. It’s an easy dessert to make and once it’s made, it looks like a lot more effort went into it’s creation. For my Pavlova, I went with Nigella Lawson’s recipe for Strawberry Pavlova. I made the recipe exactly as it was posted. After putting the meringue in the oven to bake, I read the comments section and many people commented on the oven temperature that the recipe calls for. Nigella starts her oven off at 350 degrees F. Then she lowers it to 300 degrees F once the meringue is put in the oven. She continues to bake it for one hour and 15 minutes, cooling it in the oven once it’s done baking. Most people complained that the starting temperature was way too high and that it would cause the meringue to brown too quickly and crack. Apparently if you have the oven too hot, it cracks your meringue. So, I decided to cook mine for little less than an hour because of my oven temperature and after it was cooled, I could see that it did crack. The Pavlova still came out tasty it just didn’t look as pretty as it could have without any cracks.
I spoke with my good friend, Amy Fingerhut, who is a professionally trained pastry chef, and the owner of Fingerhut Cakes & Pastry’s, about the differing oven temperatures. She explained that different ovens require different oven temperatures especially if it’s a gas oven vs. an electric oven. So, since Nigella doesn’t say what type of oven she’s using in her recipe posting, there’s really no way to know why she set the temperature so high in the beginning. Amy stated that she generally bakes her meringues at 250 degrees F for about an hour and a half. Once the meringue is done, it should no longer be shiny and it should sound hollow when tapped on. Always make sure to turn the oven off and keep it in the oven while cooling. I have a dual convection/electric oven so next time I make a meringue of any sort, I will cook mine at 250 degrees F without convection. Anyway, here’s the recipe as posted by Nigella Lawson. It really is a tasty dessert. Try it and see what you think!
Strawberry Pavlova
- YIELD 6 servings
- TIME 2 hours
(Photo by Craig Lee for the New York Times)
The particular joy of this dreamy dessert, which was named in honor of the Russian ballerina, is that the meringue base can be made in advance. Then to serve it, drizzle the strawberries with a little balsamic vinegar and vanilla (a combination that brings out the fullest essential flavor of the fruit), whip some cream and arrange it all on a plate. It’s magnificent, and deliriously easy.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE MERINGUE:
- 4 egg whites
- Pinch of salt
- 1 ¼ cups superfine sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon white-wine vinegar
- A few drops vanilla extract
FOR THE TOPPING:
- 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
- ½ teaspoon high-quality vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon high-quality balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons superfine sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
PREPARATION
- To prepare meringue: heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and draw a circle on the paper using an 8- or 9- inch cake pan as a guide. Flip the parchment over so the pencil marking is facing down (this ensures that the pencil won’t transfer to the meringue). In bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and salt. Begin beating at low speed, slowly increasing to high. Continue until satiny peaks begin to form; gradually beat in sugar a tablespoon at a time until meringue is stiff and shiny.
- Sprinkle in cornstarch, white-wine vinegar and vanilla, and fold in gently. Mound onto parchment within circle, and shape into a disk, flattening top and smoothing sides. Place in oven, and immediately reduce heat to 300 degrees. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes. Turn off heat, and allow meringue to cool completely in oven.
- To prepare topping: in a mixing bowl, combine strawberries, vanilla, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours.
- To serve, carefully peel off parchment and place meringue on a platter or cake stand. Gently crack the top with the back of a soup spoon to make a shallow nest for the whipped cream and berries. Whip cream until it is thick enough to hold peaks, and spoon it evenly over meringue. Cover cream with strawberries, allowing a small amount of their liquid to dribble onto cream. Serve immediately.
(Recipe copied from New York Times: Cooking)
Disholicious 
The temperatures from Nigella are fine. But you have only given the temperatures for a conventional oven. For fan assisted oven the temperatures are 160 degrees C then lowering to 130 degrees C. You can work out what that is in degrees F for yourselves. I have done her Lemon Pavlova using these temperatures many times and they always come out perfect.
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Thanks for sharing this information DZ. I’m sure it may be helpful to some readers. 😊
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