Smitten by a sweet cloud

Pavlova is a dessert with myriad textures and tastes - crunchy, brittle, sweet, and soft. Photos: Sriram Narayanan

One of my most awe-inspiring moments in the kitchen is to watch an egg white billow up into an airy, creamy cloud a few minutes after it meets a balloon whisk. Once you have created this well-whipped cloud, the possibilities for what happens next are endless. 

Carefully fold the whites into melted chocolate for a silky chocolate mousse, or fold them with a finely sieved powder of blanched almonds and sugar for a lovely French macaron mixture, ready for the oven. Combined the whipped whites with grated cheese (Gruyere or Comte), and seasoning, fill into individual ramekins, and slide into the oven for around 15 minutes for a posh cheese soufflé that rises to the occasion. If all this is too much work, just fold in whipped egg whites separately into your regular pound cake batter for the lightest bite of cake. 

That is the magic of whipped egg whites.

My favourite way with them though, is to showcase the whipped whites just the way they are (with that light, airy texture) into a classic baked meringue. All you need to do is add fine sugar, slowly, during the whisking process and you have shiny meringue that is ready to be baked in the oven.  

This week, with Christmas just around the corner, I wanted to bake a special meringue. So I picked the Pavlova, which is a special Christmas and summertime treat for scores of families in New Zealand and Australia, and is the national dish of both the countries. This is a baked meringue with a crisp crust and soft inside and is typically topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit. 

Fresh mulberries and ruby red pomegranate seeds make for a lovely topping on this Pavlova

A chef in Wellington, New Zealand, is believed to have created the dish in honour of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova when she toured the country in the 1920s. But Australia stakes claim to the Pavlova’s creation too.

In either case, we have a lovely dessert that all arguing parties can dig into. 

Pavlova

Adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay

Ingredients

4 egg whites

1 cup superfine sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 teaspoons vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

A pinch of salt

100 ml fresh cream

200 gm mulberries

Seeds from half a pomegranate

(You can use any berries you like, or sliced peaches, plums or kiwifruit)

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius. 

Separate 4 eggs and place the egg whites in a large, clean bowl. Add a pinch of salt. Start whisking the eggs with an electric balloon whisk, or with a whisk in a stand-in mixer on a low speed.

Add the vinegar while whisking the whites. When the eggs become frothy and start growing in volume, start adding the sugar, a teaspoon at a time.

The meringue mixture will start looking shiny now. Add the cornflour.

Continue whisking until stiff peaks form. 

Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray. Heap the meringue mixture onto the tray with a spatula or a flat spoon. 

Bake at 120 degree Celsius or 100 degree Celsius (fan) for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Let cool inside oven before getting the meringue out, and do not open oven door while baking. Whip the fresh cream with some fine sugar, drizzle over cooled meringue. Decorate top with fresh fruit.

Tips: 

1. Separate the eggs carefully; no bits of yolk should stray into the whites. 

2. The bowl in which you whip the whites and the whisk must be squeaky clean, with no oily residue whatsoever. If any grease gets into the whites, they won’t grow in volume.

3. I rub the inside of the bowl with lime juice or a little vinegar to ensure no grease stays in.