Pavlova with whipped cream and strawberries

Pavlova with whipped cream and strawberries

So this morning I made the hollandaise sauce, which meant I had left over egg whites. I thought I may as well have a go at doing the pavlova. I did need some more egg whites though - so now I have more egg yolks to use! Oh well…I'm sure I will find something to do with them.

I used to make pavlovas a lot before I had the Thermomix, just using regular electric beaters. I used the recipe my mum told me - basically egg whites and sugar to make meringue, and thats it. It always turned out perfect so I had no need to change anything. At Christmas last year I tried doing it this way with the Thermomix, and it didn't seem to work as well. I don't know if it was because the bowl may not have been completely dry, or maybe had a bit of residual oil in it, or maybe I got some yolk in the whites…Anyway, it ended up a bit of a sloppy mess. So I hadn't tried it again since!

Whipped meringue

Today I thought it would be a good idea to follow the Basic Cook Book recipe. The meringue turned out really well this time - nice and thick and glossy, and it didn't flop like last time when I used my own recipe.

I decided to try making some mini meringues with some of the mixture. I put some into a piping bag and piped it onto baking paper, then baked in the oven on 150℃. They turned out pretty well!

Mini meringue

I baked the large pavlova for the time suggested in the book, however I couldn't leave it in there to cool, because I needed to use the oven. So I just let it cool on the bench. It seems to have worked just fine. I then whipped up some cream in the Thermomix, piled it onto the cooled pavlova and dressed it with some fresh strawberries. Yum! The meringue ended up nice and marshmallowy on the inside and chewy on the outside, which is just the way I like it!

Happy thermomixing!