Sweet Success – Pavlova Party
Small Pavlova, Big Flavor
No bigger than a small donut, a mini pavlova is perfect as an individual dessert. Sweet lemon meringue base, lemon curd hidden under whipped cream and topped with strawberries and kiwi puree. A sweet and tangy combination. And I finally made it work on this past trial run, plus found a wine match. So this is now ready and approved for my next event (in May….I have mere weeks left!)
Base Basics
The goal of Pavlova dessert is to create a fluffy meringue base that is crisp on the outside and marshmallow on the inside. Traditionally, they are cake-sized cloud blobs. It’s tricky not to over-bake when they are small. The first batch I tried to make were crunchy critters, cracked alot and didn’t taste great. I did 3 tricks to try to make this work.
Trick 1: Meringue Powder
Most recipes on Pavlovas note to use fresh egg whites. and then in a slow painful process, add sugar. There is a tricky balance to getting the sugar to dissolve but not over whipping the eggs. I opted to try out Meringue Powder to avoid all that.
I followed the directions to make a standard meringue, then added in the extras that make the “marshmallow” effect. And acid (lemon juice or vinegar) and cornstarch. Here’s why this works well for me, the first step is to completely dissolve sugar into boiling water. There’s no issue with undissolved sugar causing graininess or weeping.
Trick 2: Lemon
I’m not a fan of plain meringue. It can taste eggy. Too much vanilla makes it brown. So I opted to try to make it lemon flavored. I used lemon juice for the acid and a lot of lemon zest (microplaned for fine bits). Worked like a charm. Very lemony, very tasty.
Trick 3: Easy Oven
I don’t mean the old-school baking toy with the light bulb. Rather, I used a lighter touch on the baking time when working with these mini versions. Bake 30 min, turn off and rest inside the oven for 30 min. After that, take them out to finish cooling somewhere safe. Keep them away from moisture! I once made meringues a day-ahead in August, by the morning they were shriveled chewy slugs. Once all the way cool, store them in an airtight container or bag.
Click to see the full recipe: Mini Lemon Pavlova with Strawberries & Kiwi Puree
Wine Winner
And now for a very important part, the wine. Pavlova is very sweet, so a companion wine must be provide the right balance. Also, the wine must be drinkable as a stand alone – not just with the dessert . A third requirement particular to the event theme, it must be from either New Zealand or Australia. As this dessert is the national dessert of both New Zealand and Australia. Finally, we found a match to all three requirements!
White wine is not my preference – so I am probably a lot more difficult to please on this front. We tried some wines that were unbearable sweet. Yet they had lots of good reviews. Lots of love for hot tub wine! Inversely, I tried several sparkling wines that were almost bitter and flavorless to me (again good reviews – so I’m not going to wine bash).
Just the other day, my mother brought over three very drinkable sweet wines to try (and very inexpensive – very good value here). One was Thousand Lives Sweet Sparkling Wine, which was bubbly and I liked it. But it was from Argentina. A good Southern Hemisphere wine, but not quite the country we were going for.
Next, we tried two Moscatos from Australia: Mallee Point and Jacob’s Creek. I preferred the pear-like taste of Mallee Point by itself. But Jacob’s Creek had just the right amount of sweetness to take on the Pavlova and really accentuate the lemon and fruit.
Bonus Tasting
Another dessert dish we are testing out is a Amarula Dom Pedro, a kind of boozy milkshake that is a popular cocktail in South Africa. I thought it would be fun to include (need I say it again “boozy cocktail!”). Never had Amarula cream liquor before, or Marula Fruit liquor it is also called. I heard it was good but one needs to do their research.
We tried two brands and it was yummy. It tastes a bit like Bailys with a hint of fruitiness. The Amarula Fruit Cream brand was more expensive and had a stronger flavor. The other was Cape Marula Cream Liqueur, which was a bit lighter and certainly less expensive. Mixed with ice-cream, either will work. I’m excited to do these in tall shots glasses with a sprinkling of chocolate shavings for the party. It’s nice that things are coming together.
More Trials Await
I still have quite a few dishes that need finessing or a test run to confirm timing. You can see my menu plans on my prior post (click here). Good news, only one wine needs confirming. About 4 1/2 weeks from event, I need to put it in high gear. The kitchen is calling!