Thursday, 9 August 2007

Pavlova.....




What to do with 6 egg whites left over from another ice cream experiment? Make a pavlova of course!

Pavlova is the national New Zealand dessert. The Australians claim that they invented it, however, published recipes in NZ cookbooks, firmly mark the pavlova as a Kiwi icon.

Making a pavlova, here at high altitude, has had it's challenges. No matter what I did, my pavs never came out like they did back home. That was, until an online aquaintance sent me a recipe for a never fail pavlova. The recipe sounds a bit odd, in that you use boiling water and beat all the ingredients together. However, it works and I'm back to making loftier pavs.


ELIZABETH MANNING'S NEVER FAIL PAVLOVA - By Catherine Manning

6 egg whites
2 cups sugar
4 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch in the US)
6 tbsp boiling water
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp vinegar (white)

Put all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 15 - 20 minutes or until very stiff. When you pull the beaters out, the mixture should stand up in stiff peaks. (I find at altitude, I usually have to beat the mixture for 30 minutes or more.)

Pile on to baking paper on an oven tray. You can also use aluminium foil on the baking tray. Lightly dust with cornflour so the pav won't stick. Pile it up high and do not spread out, as the pav will spread while cooking. Use a fork to mark ridges up the side.

Put in the middle of a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 250 deg F. Cook for 2 hours. Turn oven off and leave the pav in the oven, with door closed, overnight or until the oven is cold. This takes at least 6 - 8 hours. (Do not open the oven at any point during the cooking or cooling. Not even a quick peak!! This may cause the pav to fall.)

Cut around the top of the pav with a sharp knife and allow the top to drop into the pav. This forms a shell for the cream. Fill with whipped cream (NOT THE TYPE IN THE AEROSAL CAN) and decorate with fruit or topping of your choice.

For whipped cream topping

Whip at least a pint of whipping cream and a tbsp of sugar till the cream has stiff peaks. Spread over pav.

Serve and enjoy!!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

That recipe rocks!

Unknown said...

Indeed it does, Brian :-)

Anonymous said...

Cool to see this recipe online somewhere - it's my Mum's recipe... I'm Elizabeth, and Mum thought since it was a school cook book you had to put the kid's name, not the cook's name... but it's really Catherine Manning's Pav recipe, and she's famous around Lower Hutt and some of Wellington as the Queen of Pavlovas. Mum has also had to adjust the recipe a few times as we have lived at altitude - in Colorado, and Mum is still living there at the moment.

Anyway, great to hear other people are using Mum's recipe... it's a great one.

Smiles,
Beth / Elizabeth Manning

Unknown said...

Hi Beth,

Great to hear from you. Your Mum's pav is absoloutly brilliant. It works well for me, without any tweaking, here in Nevada. It's been a hit here and people often request that I bring 'Elizabeth's pavlova'. :-) It's good to know some of the history of it.

Anonymous said...

Hi

I tried the pavlova recipe but it kind of burnt to a crisp!!! I'm in Park City Utah - so about 7500ft...
should i just try reducing the oven temp???

Anonymous said...

Dropping by from sits. Sending some sunshine your way. This is a very hard dessert to make. You done good!

Anonymous said...

A pavlova was the first thing I ever baked, back when I was an exchange student to New Zealand. Now I live in Albuquerque (5352ft) and this is the only recipe that's worked here. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I'm eager to try this recipe. I live in Colorado at 7200 ft above sea level and, to date, my pavlovas have bombed. Just curious if anyone can share any modifications they might have made for this altitude. I also bake (or try to) at 10,500 ft. Any suggestions of really great cookbooks/resources. I use "Pie in the Sky" and have had a lot of success. I'd especially like to make candy.

Susan said...

I tried the recipie at 6200 feet
and it worked beautifully. It
actually looked like the photo.
Next time I will cook it on a cookie sheet that doesn't have a rim as it spread to double it's
size and half it's height.

Maryann said...

I used the recipe exactly and mine turned out great at 7200 feet. My lovely Irish aunt was Patsy Manning so when I saw the title on this recipe I knew it was the one I should try. It was a huge hit and several people asked for the recipe. THanks!

Lauren said...

Thank you for sharing this! We live at 5280 ft (Denver, Colorado) and it is so nice to have a pav recipe that works here! My Kiwi husband is thrilled. We are modifying the cook time for individual pavs to serve at a party in a few weeks. Guess we have to test it a few times (darn!).

Jeanette said...

We loved it, had to make it for my daughters school project, I beat it a little too long and it quadrupled in size. We decided to make individual ones so I looked up the cooking directions for small ones on the Internet - heat oven to 275, reduce to 250 and cook for 50to 60 minutes. Turn off oven and I only left them in for about an hour- turned out great. Maybe a little dry but I love the crunchy part and with cream & fruit we had a taste of heaven from home. Her classmates loved it.
We live in Albuquerque right up by the mountain, so around 5000 ft

Jeanette said...

We loved it, had to make it for my daughters school project, I beat it a little too long and it quadrupled in size. We decided to make individual ones so I looked up the cooking directions for small ones on the Internet - heat oven to 275, reduce to 250 and cook for 50to 60 minutes. Turn off oven and I only left them in for about an hour- turned out great. Maybe a little dry but I love the crunchy part and with cream & fruit we had a taste of heaven from home. Her classmates loved it.
We live in Albuquerque right up by the mountain, so around 5000 ft

littleoddme said...

Thank you SO much for this. I am an Aussie living in Denver and have had trouble with my pavlovas falling ... until this recipe.

A word of warning to those doing this one by hand though - it takes a LOT longer to beat than just regular egg whites. I was using a whisk and it took me fifty minutes to beat it. However it was totally worth it - my pav was beautiful. I did modify the cooking time - half an hour at 250 F and then reduced to 170 F for an hour. Then I turned the oven off, having never opened it, and left it for five hours before taking my pav out. Gorgeous!!

ohsohappy said...

Hi, would it be possible to add a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of minced, toasted pecans or walnuts. I really want this to work at 7,000 ft. Don't want to screw it up but would love nuts in it, if possible. Thx.

Unknown said...

I used this recipe today. First time Pavlova maker here and I live at about 5200 feet. My results were pretty good! I halved the recipe, so I knew there would probably be some additional tweaking I'd need to do. I think I over beat the mixture--I let the Kitchenaid stand mixer run for about 15 minutes and the mixture was very, very stiff. Next time I would keep a closer eye on it and stop mixing as soon as it got to stiff peaks. I followed the rest of the directions exactly, and I was a bit worried I would over bake it, but I don't think that I did. It was a very pretty Pavlova, only a little bit of cracking, crisp on the outside, marshmallow consistency on the inside. I look forward to trying it again.

Thanks for the post!

Unknown said...

I made this in the Denver area at 5200 ft and it was a hit! So easy and dependable. I want to try making individual pavlovas next because we like to have some to store in airtight containers for another evening. I guess I just keep the same temps but shorten the baking time. Has anyone tried making "personal pavlovas" with this recipe yet?