First, preheat the oven to 100 degrees Celsius. Then line a large baking tray with baking paper. To make the meringue, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in a clean, dry bowl using an electric mixer until firm peaks form. Add one tablespoon of sugar and whisk well to dissolve the sugar. Continue adding sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved before adding more.
Add cornflour and whisk to combine. Pour over melted chocolate and gently fold into the meringue mixture until just marbled. Drop six even portions of the meringue mixture onto the lined tray. Pop in the oven and bake for an hour and 15 minutes or until the pavlova is dry to touch.
Turn the oven off and leave the pavlovas in the oven with the door ajar for one hour to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the poached cherries. Place cherries, sugar, brandy wine or apple juice, cinnamon, star anise and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring the mixture occasionally, for 5 minutes. The mixture is ready when the cherries are just heated through and begin to release their juices. Use a slotted spoon to lift the cherries out and transfer to a heatproof bowl.
Add the cherry jam to the poaching liquid in the saucepan and cook for two to three minutes, until the syrup thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and then pour over the cherries in the bowl. Pop in the fridge to chill. Just before serving, whisk cream, icing sugar and almond essence in a bowl using an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
Place the pavlovas on serving plates and top with the whipped cream mixture. Spoon over the poached cherries and drizzle with some of the syrup. Rippled with chocolate and loaded with spiced cherries these mini pavlovas make a fabulous festive dessert.
Ingredients
6 Coles Australian Free Range Egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups (330g) caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
50g dark chocolate, melted, cooled slightly
300ml thickened cream
2 tbs icing sugar mixture, sifted
1 tsp almond essence
Poached cherries
500g cherries
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) cherry brandy, red wine or apple juice
1 cinnamon stick or quill
2 whole star anise
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/3 cup (110g) cherry jam
Check ingredient labels to make sure they meet your specific dietary requirements and always consult a health professional before changing your diet. View dietary information here.
Percentage Daily Intake information on our recipes is calculated using the nutrition reference values for an average Australian adult.
Method
Step 1
Preheat oven to 100°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Step 2
Use an electric mixer to whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar in a clean, dry bowl until firm peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, 1 tbs at a time, whisking well after each addition. Continue whisking until the sugar completely dissolves. Add cornflour and whisk to combine. Pour over melted chocolate and gently fold the mixture twice until just marbled. Spoon 6 equal portions of mixture onto the lined tray.
Step 3
Bake for 75 mins or until pavlovas are dry to the touch. Turn oven off. Leave the pavlovas in the oven, with the door ajar, for 1 hour to cool completely.
Step 4
Meanwhile, to make the poached cherries, place the cherries, sugar, brandy, wine or apple juice, cinnamon, star anise and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 5 mins or until cherries are just heated through and begin to release their juices. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cherries to a heatproof bowl.
Step 5
Add the cherry jam to the syrup in the saucepan and cook for 2-3 mins or until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Pour over the cherries in the bowl. Place in the fridge to chill.
Step 6
Use an electric mixer to whisk the cream, icing sugar and almond essence in a bowl until soft peaks form.
Step 7
Place the pavlovas on serving plates. Top with the cream mixture. Spoon over the poached cherries and syrup. Serve immediately.
TIP: Excess fat and undissolved sugar in a meringue can cause it to ‘weep’ liquid during baking. Whisk in the sugar well, but just fold in the chocolate – it will marble as you spoon meringue onto the tray.
Get ahead:Make the poached cherries up to 1 day ahead. Store, covered, in the fridge.
0:00
why is Pavlova one of Australia's
0:01
favorite desserts to me it's really
0:03
obvious it's sweet and light but it's
0:05
still rich and you can put whatever
0:07
seasonal fruits you want on it but there
0:09
are a few secrets to getting that mering
0:12
just perfect and I'm going to teach you
0:13
them right
0:14
now the first one is egg whites you want
0:17
these to be at room temperature don't
0:19
use them straight out of the fridge let
0:21
them sit out for at least an hour or
0:23
hold the bowl like this for a little bit
0:24
and the warmth of your hands will
0:26
actually warm up those egg whites a
0:27
little bit go ahead and dump those
0:30
straight into your stand
0:34
mixer once that whisk has been working
0:36
for about 30 seconds you'll see how
0:39
voluminous this becomes right and that
0:41
actually allows the sugar to be absorbed
0:43
in a much better way and then you just
0:44
add it in a nice slow
0:47
string let's have a little peek and see
0:49
what's going on you can see now by the
0:51
Whisk it's now probably at about a soft
0:54
peak so see how that's really floppy
0:56
which tells me we're ready to add the
0:58
other ingredients start moving
1:00
that whisk slowly it's time we're going
1:01
to add the vinegar 1/4 teaspoon of
1:04
vanilla take your cornstarch and using a
1:06
little seiv add that pick up the
1:09
pace I always add Just A
1:12
Pinch I always add just a pinch of salt
1:15
to every dessert that I make because I
1:17
think it brings out a lot of that
1:18
beautiful Flavor now the reason I check
1:20
it a couple of times is you don't want
1:22
to over whisk if you over whisk it
1:24
you'll actually start removing some of
1:26
that air again and eventually you'll
1:27
beat all of that air back out so it's
1:29
just that perfect moment in time that
1:30
we're looking for let's have a little
1:32
peek at our Peaks perfect stiff peaks
1:35
and when that happens you know you don't
1:37
need to whisk it anymore I'm going to
1:39
show you a little trick take some
1:40
parchment paper and get yourself a
1:42
cutter now whether that is a big one or
1:44
a small one choice is yours I actually
1:46
run a pencil around like this flip the
1:49
parchment over like that you'll still be
1:52
able to see through it and you can just
1:54
gently fold that beautiful light mering
1:57
around like this pop it onto your
1:59
parchment now another little way to get
2:01
those perfect mering is using one of
2:04
these guys if you've got one of these
2:05
big ice cream Scoops you can go ahead
2:08
and hit it right in the middle of that
2:10
Circle that you made and you create this
2:12
beautiful dolp of mering they might want
2:14
to be small individual ones or you might
2:16
want to do one really big one it can
2:19
kind of be in any shape that you like
2:20
use a spoon and I actually want a little
2:23
divot in the center here so I've got
2:25
somewhere to fill up my whipped cream
2:27
we've made our pavlovas now here's
2:28
another little secret if you take just a
2:30
little dollop of that mering and stick
2:32
it in all four corners it's going to
2:34
stick to your sheep tray so nothing is
2:37
going to fly around in the oven so
2:39
that's it the mering are ready to go in
2:41
the oven they go in at 150 Cel and as
2:44
soon as you put them in you turn it down
2:45
to 105 and they take about an hour and 15
2:48
minutes once your pav overs have been in
2:50
for an hour and 15 minutes turn the oven
2:52
off stick a wooden spoon in the top like
2:55
this that's going to allow the heat to
2:57
escape the oven slowly right right we
2:59
don't want to rush them because that's
3:01
when you get a little crackage once your
3:03
pavlovas have had the time to cool down
3:05
remove that wooden spoon grab the tray I
3:08
probably don't even need a towel cuz
3:09
they're cooled right down now the great
3:11
thing about a pavlova there are no
3:14
rules the really it's totally up to you
3:16
what kind of fruit you use you need a
3:17
little tartness to relieve some of the
3:20
sweetness that we've put into the mering
3:21
let me show you how you can do it as an
3:24
individual just take a tiny little
3:26
dollop of whipped cream and use it as a
3:28
glue that's now secure and put a nice
3:31
big dollop of frozen yogurt if you
3:33
wanted to add some whipped cream be my
3:35
guest got some peaches and some
3:37
nectarines could do a drizzle it's an
3:40
individual pav over maybe that's your
3:42
style or maybe it's not well don't worry
3:44
because what I'm going to show you next
3:46
you might want to layer them this one
3:48
I'll do with some whipped cream and you
3:49
might want to stick them straight down
3:51
the center of your platter like this and
3:53
put a nice big dollop of cream in each
3:56
one so you can now see just how many
3:58
different options you you've got when it
4:00
comes to plating these of course you
4:01
dress it with whatever fruits you like
4:04
the look of we're so lucky in Australia
4:06
our Christmas Falls right in the middle
4:08
of summer I've actually got a little
4:10
caramel sauce that I made with passion
4:12
fruit just imagine if something goes
4:14
slightly wrong with you pavlovas
4:16
imagine if they're a bit broken there's
4:18
a thing called an eaten mess purposely
4:20
break these babies up still leave them
4:22
in big chunks stick them into the bottom
4:24
of a glass put a little frozen yogurt or
4:27
maybe some whipped cream and now we kind
4:30
of
4:31
layer finish this with one perfect
4:34
little
4:35
raspberry that looks great I want to go
4:38
to this dinner party so whether you want
4:39
to do it as an individual pav over an
4:41
absolute showstopper or my beautiful
4:44
little messy smash pav the choice is
4:46
yours when it comes to plating the good
4:48
news is all of them look wonderful but
4:50
even better they taste delicious go to
4:58
coles.com.au come
5:04
on
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