For someone who lives in a country where pavlova is queen of desserts, I haven’t made it from scratch often. One of the first times I made a pav I forgot about it after leaving it to cool in the oven. The next day I noticed a trail of ants winding it’s way out of the oven to the window sill… I opened the oven and a sad, crumpled mess of a shell lay before me.
The chance and the challenge to try my hand yet again at pav from scratch came when a friend asked me if I could teach her how to make this divine crunch encrusted cloud of sweetness.
I had to come clean. I am no expert.
Finally the day of reckoning occurred and newly named Pavlova Princess came over for a pav bake off and the excuse to watch The Princess Bride.
The room temperature egg whites in a scrupulously clean and grease free bowl were beaten to glossy stiff peaked perfection (with all the other ingredients) by Pavlova Princess and then piled into a 2cm high disc shape on a baking paper lined tray. We shaped it this way to get a bit of height to the pav, and I’m glad we did as it sank a bit on cooling.
We prepared a second pav, using vanilla extract as well. This was shaped as a flatter round, just to experiment with outcome.
Cooked and almost cooled by the time Princess Bride had been enjoyed by all.
Now, I don’t know how all the pavlovas I see in photos have white crusts–mine have always come out a light caramel colour. Same for this time, 2 caramel crunchy crusted pillows… All in all, very happy with results thus far.
Pavlova Princess crowned the pavs with luscious Chantilly cream and jewels of 
passionfruit, strawberries, kiwi fruit and Silvan berries (a type of blackberry).
The sterling result was eaten most gratefully by Pavlova Princess’s family and mine, after a meal shared together. (Yes, we ate nearly 2 pavlovas!)
The recipe I chose to use was Donna Hay’s Pavlova as below:
Ing:
4 egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
3 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white vinegar
Method:
Set oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks.
Gradually beat in sugar until mixture is glossy. Fold in corn flour. Fold in vinegar.
Pile onto 18cm round baking paper on baking tray.
Place in oven,reduce temp. to 120 degrees Celsius.
Cook for 1 hour.
Cool in oven.
Top with whipped cream and what ever you want really.
They look really nice Maggie. I have not made one before, but my sister Jane who is gluten free makes one every Christmas and hers too come out with the caramel colour, maybe it’s the colour they are supposed to be. Sometimes hers do not rise much so we call those ones Giant Pav Biscuits.
Hi, just though I would add a suggestion for your pavlova , try cooking the pav @ 110° for the last hour. Mine comes out a whiter colour.