Pavlova Recipe

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Pavlova

This favorite dessert of Australia was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova by a chef who wanted to create something “as light and ethereal as the dancer herself.” He achieved his goal with this meringue crust topped with whipped cream and an assortment of fresh fruit.

Research shows the recipe originated in New Zealand. Keith Money, a biographer of Anna Pavlova, wrote that a hotel chef in Wellington, New Zealand, created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour.

Professor Helen Leach, a culinary anthropologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has compiled a library of cookbooks containing 667 pavlova recipes from more than 300 sources. Her book, The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, states that the first Australian pavlova recipe was created in 1935 while an earlier version was penned in 1929 in the rural magazine.

The Australian website “Australian Flavour” gives the earlier date of 1926 for its creation, suggesting that Home Cookery for New Zealand, by Australian writer Emily Futter, contained a recipe for “Meringue with Fruit Filling”. This recipe was similar to today’s version of the dessert.

It has been claimed that Bert Sachse created the dish at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, Australia in 1935. In defence of his claim as inventor of the dish, a relative of Sachse’s wrote to Leach suggesting that Sachse may have accidentally dated the recipe incorrectly. Leach replied they would not find evidence for that “because it’s just not showing up in the cookbooks until really the 1940s in Australia.” (However, a 1937 issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly contains a “pavlova sweet cake” recipe.) Of such arguments, Matthew Evans, a restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, said that it was unlikely that a definitive answer about the pavlova’s origins would ever be found. “People have been doing meringue with cream for a long time, I don’t think Australia or New Zealand were the first to think of doing that.

The first known recorded recipe named “pavlova” was published in the fifth Australian edition of Davis Dainty Dishes in 1926. However this “pavlova” recipe was not meringue based, but was instead a multi-coloured gelatine dish.

A newspaper article from January 1927 claims an American ice-cream was named after Pavlova: “Dame Nellie Melba, of course, has found fame apart from her art in the famous sweet composed of peaches and cream, while Mme. Anna Pavlova lends her name to a popular variety of American ice-cream.”

Ingredients:
Meringue:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tspn cornstarch
6 large egg whites
1 tspn distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tspn pure vanilla extract

Whipped Cream:
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tspn pure vanilla extract
1/2 tspn pure almond extract

4 cups mixed fresh fruit, such as blueberries, blackberries, red currants, gooseberries, strawberries and/or raspberries

Preparation:
For the Meringue:

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and trace a 12-inch round on the paper with a pencil.
In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Stir with a whisk until smooth. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until they begin to froth and turn opaque. Decrease mixer speed to low, and add the sugar mixture in 1/2 cup increments, immediately followed by the vinegar. Continue to beat on high speed for at least 2 minutes, until the whites form stiff peaks. Increase the mixer speed to high and pour the boiling water into the egg whites all at once. The egg whites will swell up considerably. Beat the egg whites until the water is totally incorporated, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and continue to beat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the egg whites form stiff, glossy peaks.
With a rubber spatula, take some of the meringue and carefully fill in the base of the traced circle. Continue to add meringue to make a thick cake.
Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 40 minutes, or until set.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the pan on a wire rack. Gently remove the parchment paper by rolling it out from under the meringue; take care, as the meringue will be very delicate.

For the Whipped Cream:

In a deep bowl, beat the cream until it begin to hold its shape. Add the sugar and the vanilla and almond extract. Beat until soft peaks form.
Carefully spread the whipped cream over the top of the meringue and top with the mixed fresh fruit. Serve at once, cut into wedges.

The baked meringue can be refrigerated and lightly covered for up to 2 days.

Recipe courtesy of Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free by Karen Morgan

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