From this amount of ingredients you will get a round cake with a diameter of approximately 22 cm and a height of 5-6 cm or 8 cakes with a diameter of 10 cm. The classic version uses strawberries and kiwi, but you can take the berries and fruits that you like best. Every source I looked at suggested using cornstarch. This is exactly what I did, so I don’t know how meringue will behave with potato starch. The cream can be made only from whipped cream, but I like it better with the addition of cream cheese. It is better to use cream cheese that is not very high in fat, because with mascarpone the cream was not at all light and airy. Adjust the amount of powdered sugar in the cream to your taste. If you take 50 grams, the cream will be almost neutral, not sweet. If you, like me, have a sweet tooth, then add 100 grams, but remember that the meringue also turns out very sweet. So let's start cooking
Carefully separate the whites from the yolks, being careful not to let a single drop of yolk fall into the bowl with the whites. Begin beating the whites in a clean, dry bowl at low speed, gradually increasing it. When a light foam forms from the whites (not yet dense peaks), begin to add powdered sugar and vanilla sugar in parts.
Then add lemon juice, vinegar and starch, without stopping whisking
Stop whipping when you get a snow-white, dense mass that, even if you turn the bowl over, will remain in it and will not drain
There are two ways to lay out the cake base. The first is to cover a baking sheet with a silicone mat or baking paper. Moisten a springform ring (20 cm in diameter) with cold water, place on a baking sheet and fill with protein mixture.
Run a spatula along the side and carefully remove the mold. Use a spoon to make a small depression in the center (you should end up with something like a nest)
The second way is to draw a circle with a diameter of 20 cm on parchment paper. Lay out the entire protein mass, trying not to go beyond the outline of the circle
Using a fork or a special cake spatula, make a design on the side
Place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 130 degrees for 1 hour. After this, turn off the oven, open the door slightly and leave the meringue in the oven until it cools completely (you can leave it overnight and assemble the cake in the morning)
Wash and dry the berries you will use on a paper towel.
Place all the ingredients for the cream in a mixer bowl (both the ingredients and the bowl should be cold) and first mash with a spatula
Then beat with a mixer at slightly below medium speed until a light, airy cream is obtained. As soon as you see that all the products have combined, the mass is not liquid and characteristic marks remain from the whisk, you can stop whipping. Don’t be too overzealous, you need to be very careful with the cream :) Until the cake is filled, the cream must be stored in the refrigerator
Well, all the basic preparations are completed, let's start assembling the cake. Place the cooled meringue very carefully (it is fragile) on a plate or cake pan, fill the depression in the center with cream, arrange the berries beautifully (if necessary, cut them into small pieces), and decorate with mint leaves. Before serving, if desired, you can sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar.
And this is what my first Pavlova looked like:)
This cake is so tender that it is advisable to serve it immediately after cooking. Overnight in the refrigerator will negatively affect both appearance and taste. That's why, if you're making pavlova for your family and want to stretch out the fun, I suggest making it in the form of single-serve pies. Meringue is normally stored at room temperature, cream and fruit are stored in the refrigerator. You will need five minutes to assemble a fresh dessert :) Only in this case, 40 minutes will be enough to dry the meringue
This is what the cake looks like in cross-section: a fragile meringue crust on the outside, a soft soufflé inside, delicate cream, sweet and sour berries and refreshing mint
I want to make this magical cake again and again! It is not only delicious, but also incredibly photogenic:) Create your own little masterpieces and delight your loved ones with this beauty!
If you are sad now, hoping to find “that” recipe for this dessert, I hasten to reassure you. “The same one” will probably never be found. Because the debut of this sweet on the culinary stage took place at the beginning of the last century. Ballet dancer Anna Pavlova in 1926 toured the world, and admiring spectators generously presented the “star” with signs of attention. One of these is a dessert named after her.
By the way, it is still not known whether the chef from Australia or New Zealand presented Anna with this dish. But be that as it may, the delicacy immediately spread across countries and has been a classic of world confectionery art for almost a century.
Pavlova dessert: step-by-step recipe
If you and your kitchen are ready to take on this challenge, I suggest you get started.
Ingredients
- whites - 4 pieces;
- powdered sugar - 180 g;
- corn starch - 2.5 tsp;
- wine vinegar - 1.5 tsp;
- vanilla sugar - 10 g.
A little about ingredients
Everything is clear with the whites - neatly separated from the yolks, they are waiting in the wings.
We need cornstarch for the viscosity of the inner world of our meringue. Yes, yes, exactly meringues. Because meringue is a protein cream baked until dry. And meringue is the same thing, but with a stretchy core.
Vinegar. In general, “tartar” is often found in recipes. It almost sounds like a unicorn tail to me, so I opted for a middle ground between cream of tartar and just vinegar or lemon juice.
There's not much to say about vanilla sugar. Except that you don't have to use it at all.
Preparation
Let's get started? First, turn on the oven at 130 degrees. Now take the whites and beat them in a low-fat and dry bowl, gradually adding powdered sugar and vanilla.
When the powder is completely introduced, you can add starch.
At the final stage of whipping, when the protein peaks already hold their shape well, pour in the wine vinegar. Continue beating until stiff standing peaks form.
After this, use a pastry bag to place our meringue in the shape of a nest on parchment.
If you want a portioned dessert, then several nests, but of a smaller diameter.
All. We lower the temperature in the oven to 100 degrees and send our workpiece there for an hour and a half. This is where, given the temperature errors of ovens and the different sizes of desserts, you should use all your intuition. The right meringue will be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. If water drops suddenly appear, it means you overexposed it.
Let the meringue cool slowly, just by opening the oven door slightly. And after 40 minutes we take it out completely.
As soon as the dessert preparation has completely cooled down, we begin to make the cream. Whipped cream topped with berries is considered the most suitable.
For cream:
- cream 33% fat - 300 g;
- powdered sugar - solely to your taste. But if the meringue is very sweet, it is better not to overuse sugar in the cream;
- berries - preferably fresh. But you can also use frozen ones if you drain the juice from them in advance.
We begin to whip the cream, gradually adding powdered sugar. Feel free to taste it to control the sweetness.
Turn off the mixer when the whisk begins to leave a clear pattern on the surface of the cream. Now we fill our meringues with cream and decorate with berries.
The tea should already be brewed by this point, because the assembly of the Anna Pavlova dessert must occur strictly before serving.
Bon appetit!
Created by Australian confectioners a century ago in honor of the incredibly talented Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, the Pavlova meringue cake resembles a snow-white tutu. The light, airy, lacy dessert is associated with the Russian dancer who conquered the world with her unsurpassed talent, elegance and grace. True, New Zealand confectioners claim that they are the authors of the original dessert. Let’s not argue, but rather let’s try to bake this confectionery miracle. The cake is made from French meringue, whipped cream and strawberries, with a crispy crust on the outside and a soft meringue inside that melts in your mouth. According to eyewitnesses, Anna Pavlova really liked this cake and enjoyed it during her tour in Australia and New Zealand. The recipe is ingenious and so simple that you can easily prepare Pavlova cake at home, even without any special culinary training.
Preparing ingredients for dessert
To prepare Pavlova cake at home, we will need the following products: chilled egg whites, sugar or powdered sugar, 33% fat cream, vanillin, wine vinegar and corn starch, which can be replaced with potato starch (although you will need 2 times less potato starch). If you don't like vinegar, substitute lime or lemon juice, although some recipes combine vinegar with citrus juice. Instead of cream, you can use various cream cheeses such as mascarpone or full-fat sour cream. For decoration you will need powdered sugar, chocolate, nuts or confectionery powder.
By the way, it is quite appropriate to replace the whipped cream with light low-calorie yogurt, mixing it with honey instead of sugar, or even make an unsweetened cream, because the cream itself is slightly sweet, and the fruits provide additional sweetness. Instead of cream, you can also use fruit sorbet or thick berry syrup. Of course, this will no longer be a classic cake, but you don’t have to worry about the figure.
How to beat egg whites for French meringue
Beat the whites only in a dry and clean container, since even a drop of moisture or fat can interfere with the process and the foam will not be as strong as it should be. Some housewives pre-degrease the dishes with lemon juice and wipe them dry. Confectioners have different opinions about the temperature of the proteins for meringues - some believe that it is better to pre-cool them, while others use the proteins at room temperature. Only one thing can be said for sure: cold eggs beat better and faster, and slightly warm whites give a softer foam. A pinch of salt is often added to the proteins to obtain a fluffy foam. In general, all housewives have their own culinary subtleties and secrets.
The whites for the Pavlova cake need to be whipped in a mixer - first at low speed, and then increasing the speed and gradually adding powdered sugar, literally a tablespoon at a time. Sugar is always added only after the peaks have become stiff, otherwise the whites will be difficult to beat. Properly whipped meringue holds its shape well, it is quite dense and at the same time very smooth and airy. After sugar, you can carefully add other products to the protein mass, mixing them carefully and not very intensely.
The tender center is the highlight of the cake: how to bake meringue
You can make one large cake, bake several mini-cakes, or make dessert in the form of small cakes. Protein products are usually baked on baking paper to prevent sticking. Draw a circle of the desired shape on the paper, lightly sprinkle the paper with cornmeal and spread the protein mixture evenly, leveling it with a spoon. To make the cake easier to form, you can use a springform pan. The edges of the airy meringue should be slightly higher to form a cup, which is subsequently filled with cream. You can also make a very deep vase that looks like a volcano with a crater, decorate the surface of the meringue with a relief pattern, or give the cake an original shape using a pastry syringe.
The meringue is baked in two stages - the first stage lasts 5 minutes, temperature - 140-150 °C. This is necessary for the meringue crust to set and become crispy. At the second stage, the meringue is prepared for about half an hour at a temperature of 120 °C. You can bake the cake in another way - heat the oven to 200 °C, then reduce the heat to 90-100 °C and bake the meringue for another 1.5-2 hours. The most suitable baking mode is bottom-up with convection, since in this case the meringue will dry well and remain soft inside. Cooking time depends on the features of the oven and the size of the meringue, but there are certain signs that you can focus on. If the meringue seems too wet, then turn off the heat too early, and if drops of syrup appear on its surface, you have dried out the dessert.
Do not open the oven while the cake is baking, otherwise the meringue will settle, be patient. After turning off the oven, do not immediately take out the baking sheet, let the cake stand for a while, cool down and “come to its senses.”
Cream and juicy fruits: decorating the cake
While the cake is cooling in the oven, beat the cooled heavy cream with a mixer or whisk, but do not overdo it or the butter will separate from the whey. The right buttercream always turns out light, tender and dense.
Place the baked and cooled meringue on a plate, cover the top and sides with buttercream and garnish with plenty of strawberries, although you can use any berries and fruits. Place mint leaves on the berries, pour fruit puree or chocolate sauce over the cake, sprinkle with powdered sugar or grated chocolate - you can decorate the dessert in different ways, it all depends on your imagination. Some confectioners decorate the dessert with chocolate painting made from white and dark chocolate, and use nuts and candied fruits. Serve the finished dessert immediately. Pavlova cake should be eaten immediately, preferably without leaving it for tomorrow.
Pavlova cake: cooking secrets
For the cake, you need to beat the whites very well to get a thick and strong foam, and instead of sugar it is better to use powdered sugar. Sometimes salt is added to the protein mass for better whipping. The classic pavlova recipe calls for cornstarch and vinegar, and these ingredients are very important because they create the crispy crust of the meringue, which hides the soft and fluffy cream inside. This is the main difference between the dessert and ordinary meringue. Some recipes mention flour, which is added in small quantities to the proteins. Thanks to it, the dough becomes more plastic, you can create the most bizarre shapes from it or hide the filling inside.
The cake can be baked either whole or in portions, and decorated with strawberries, passion fruit, kiwi or raspberries. In general, any fruit and berries, but the classic combination is strawberries and passion fruit. The cake can be decorated with mint or lemon balm leaves for freshness and aroma.
And one more secret - assemble the cake right before serving, otherwise the layers of meringue will be saturated with berry or fruit juice too quickly, soften, and the juice will flow, as a result of which the dessert will look unattractive. It is advisable to eat the cake immediately, as the next day it becomes tasteless. But it is recommended to bake the meringue in advance. For example, the day before the planned tea party, so that the cookies dry out and become crispy.
Pavlova cake: step-by-step recipe
There are about 700 recipes for this meringue cake in the world, and you can master many variations of its preparation. But first, let's get acquainted with the basic, classic recipe, based on which you can experiment in the future.
Ingredients: egg whites - 6 pcs., powdered sugar - 300 g, wine vinegar - 1.5 tbsp. l., corn starch - 4 tsp, lemon juice - 1 tsp, vanillin - on the tip of a knife, cream (35% fat) - 350 ml, powdered sugar - 4 tsp, berries and fruits - to your taste.
Cooking method:
1. Separate the whites from the yolks.
2. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
3. Add powdered sugar and continue beating.
4. Combine the protein mass with corn starch, vinegar, lemon juice and vanilla.
5. Stir the dough well.
6. Preheat the oven to 120°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
7. Spoon the meringue into a bowl with the edges raised.
8. Bake the crust for about 1.5 hours until it becomes dense.
9. Turn off the heat and let the meringue cool in the oven.
10. Whip the cream with powdered sugar until thick.
11. Fill the well in the bowl with the resulting cream.
12. Decorate the cake with any berries and fruits to your liking.
Cut the cake and enjoy the delicate dessert, feeling how pleasantly crunchy the meringue is with a juicy and soft filling reminiscent of fresh marshmallows.
Chocolate Pavlova cake: recipe with photos
An incredibly delicious cake for chocolate lovers and simply those with a sweet tooth. Preheat the oven to 150 °C, while whisking 3 egg whites, gradually adding 175 g of sugar - about 1 tbsp. l. Add 4 tbsp to the prepared whipped whites. l. cocoa powder and stir well.
Cover a baking tray with baking paper and form two meringues from the egg white mixture. Bake the meringues for an hour until they are firm enough, then turn off the oven and let the meringue cool.
Whip 200 ml of heavy cream with 50 g of powdered sugar and assemble the cake, connecting the meringues together with cream. Fill the finished meringues with cream. Instead of buttercream, you can use creme fraiche or sorbet. Decorate with berries of your choice and sprinkle with grated chocolate. Chocolate meringue cake is a real culinary masterpiece!
This delicacy is so beautiful and tasty that it is often prepared for the holidays. It is not surprising that the world's largest Pavlova was prepared in 2005 by students at the Eastern Institute of Technology in New Zealand. The length of the cake was 65 meters, and it took about 5,000 egg yolks, 150 kg of sugar and cream to make it. Surprisingly, it was eaten instantly; the next day there was nothing left. May your dessert suffer the same fate. Enjoy your tea!
Only the lazy didn’t make it, probably, and only the lazy didn’t write about its history. Therefore, I won’t go into detail, especially since Australians and New Zealanders both argued and continue to argue about its origin, but rather I’ll tell you about my bezeigne-meringue torment, which ended with a completely acceptable result.
Like this:
But since “there is an island of Bad Luck in the ocean,” and this weekend was clearly not mine, it didn’t work out right away...
Contrary to what the internet says, meringue for Pavlova does NOT need to be dry and crispy. And it shouldn’t be rubber either. It should be slightly crumbly, dry and slightly hard on the outside and tender-soft on the inside.
"I ran to the pantry, saved the salmon. I ran to the kitchen, saved the robe. I believe, sir, that I did everything I could..." (c) Here I am - I read the master class elaizik , read chadeyka , decided that I knew everything in the world... and the first portion automatically went into the trash can. But the yolks made an excellent Lemon Curd, the preparation of which I even filmed step by step and was ready to start a new tag “master class”, but... in the morning I opened my feed and came across this post.
But I’m still a creature known for my clinical obstinacy, so attempt number two was a success, and this particular recipe became the number one candidate for the title of favorite dessert.
For the meringue:
4 egg whites at room temperature
200 g sugar (I took 100 g sugar and 100 powder)
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vinegar, lim. acid or cream of tartar
2 tsp cornstarch (I didn't have any, so without it)
I have been able to beat egg whites for a long time. The main thing is that (contrary to popular belief) the whites are not cold, and the dishes are clean and dry. A drop of water kills the horse and spoils the whole picture. First, beat the whites at low speed until foamy, then gradually increase the speed and achieve “soft peaks.” Add salt and sugar in a thin stream, continuing to beat until the mass becomes smooth, shiny and snow-white. The whites are ready when the contents remain inside when turning the bowl upside down :). Overbeating is just as bad as underbeating. At the last moment, add vinegar and starch (I suppressed the impulse to send my husband for starch at 12 at night, I did it without it, it worked, therefore, IMHO, starch is an optional ingredient).
But the baking stage was lame for me... If only because every guru has his own opinion on this matter. An impulse on the Internet, I multiplied everything and divided it in half, and came to what I was looking for experimentally.
Preheat the oven to 180 gr. Line a baking tray with baking paper, draw circles with the diameter of the desired dessert size (I used about 10 cm each), carefully, using a spoon or a pastry syringe, put the meringue mass into the circles (I tried once with a syringe, tried twice with just a spoon, but it turned out natural- unevenly), so that there is a depression in the middle and sides on the outside. Place in the oven, immediately reduce the temperature to 100 degrees. and bake for about an hour. I turned it off after 50 minutes, seeing that the meringues had turned creamy. Leave to cool in the slightly opened oven. For me they sagged a little, but I understand that in the case of soft meringue this is almost inevitable.
Cooled meringues are easily separated from the paper.
Now about the cream. Classic Pavlova is made with chantilly cream (read: whipped cream with a spoonful of sugar and a drop of vanilla essence), but I just don’t like whipped cream. Therefore, I whipped 200 g of cream and mixed in about the same amount of ill-fated Lemon Curd. I whipped everything together again. The result was a very delicate lemon cream, which I put into a syringe and filled the meringue nests.
You can use any fruit :) Initially it was passion fruit and kiwi, then they started making it with strawberries. My version (the one Odette) is raspberry.
And there was also this blackberry Odile, with a pronounced character and sourness.
What did this woman do to deserve to stay with us for centuries in a dessert with a divine and light taste? Sweet, strange, gentle Anna.
We don’t know how the famous ballerina of the twenties of the last century actually lived. Even the biography of Anna Pavlova is dedicated only to the art and secrets of virtuoso dance. The second book about a beautiful and sensitive creature was written from the words of her husband Victor Dandre. Filled with despair and melancholy after the loss of a loved one, the meaning of his whole life, he could only outline their happy journey together.
So Anna lived with her work and was overwhelmed by her muse that she saw no point in talking about love troubles and everyday problems. For this reason, Australia and New Zealand observed her career growth. The star soared into the heavens and sparkled with all its facets so brightly that standing applause and millions of flowers at the feet of the fans turned out to be a small fraction of what they could give to their idol in gratitude for the time spent at her performances.
The debate over creating a dessert for the ballerina still continues to this day. In New Zealand, it is believed that the “father” of the recipe was the chef of the hotel restaurant where Pavlova spent her free time during her tour in 1926. But residents of Australia claim that dessert appeared on their menu at the Esplanade Hotel in 1935 with the help of the famous culinary specialist Bert Sachet. After tasting the cake, the chef himself could not contain his admiration, exclaiming “Oh, how fluffy it is! Just like Pavlova herself!” And, since this particular cake was made on the occasion of the ballerina’s birthday, there was no need to come up with a name for it.
An interesting fact is that today we will not be able to accurately determine the authentic recipe for the Anna Pavlova cake. Professor Helen Leach has made a superb collection of recipes derived from the original under the same name. There are 667 of them in the book. The desserts were collected from three hundred original cookery books. The professor called the selection “Pavlova: a piece of New Zealand’s culinary history.”
All cake and dessert recipes are based on meringue. It symbolizes the ballerina's white outfit. Decorated with snow-white buttercream and pieces of fresh tropical fruit. On the outside, the dessert is a baked solid mass, inside which contains the whole secret of the recipe. The tender, airy and incredibly tasty secret of real meringue under the crust lies in this creation of the confectioner.
Preparing the Anna Pavlova cake according to the classic recipe takes a lot of time and effort, but it is worth it. If you overheat the oven or the meringue, on the contrary, does not have enough heat, then the dessert will be hopelessly spoiled. Everything must be done strictly according to proportions until the last second of baking. And then your dessert will be beautiful, like in the photo.
If the cake releases sweet drops while baking, then the oven is too hot. If you took the dessert out of the oven and noticed that it began to “cry”, then it did not have enough heat and time to fully cook. The recipe may not work out the first time, don’t worry. Pavlova is a capricious sweetness.
From the very first point of preparation, be attentive to your dish.
While the creation process itself is underway, turn on your favorite music, cheer yourself up, sing, dance around the kitchen and prepare dessert with love. This will help you create your masterpiece under the eternal name “Anna Pavlova”.
Dessert recipe:
To prepare a truly incomparable Anna Pavlova cake, you will need the following products:
- Chicken egg 4 pcs
- Sugar 225 gr
- Vinegar 1 tsp
- Vanilla sugar, vanillin 1 tsp
- Starch 1 tbsp.
Let's start cooking:
To begin with, according to the recipe, we need to separate the white from the yolk so that not a single drop of yolk gets into the white mass, otherwise the dough will not initially be suitable for preparing this dessert. Remember: one mistake and all your work will most likely go in the trash.
While your oven is revving up and preheating to 180C, beat the egg whites until foam forms and is as dense as possible. If you have a mixer, beat with a mixer. This is acceptable in the recipe. When thickened well, add sugar in portions and mix it with the foam. If you pour out all the sugar at once, the foam will stop forming and the mass will not turn out fluffy.
Prepare a separate clean and dry bowl. Mix vanilla with starch in it, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar, mix well. Carefully pour the resulting mixture into the whites, continuing to stir the mixture. Make the resulting mixture shine and become very thick.
It is not recommended to place the dessert preparation on a bare baking sheet. Use parchment. Imagine an even circle on the baking sheet or draw it on the parchment with a pencil. When laying out the mass evenly in the drawn circle, pay attention to the fact that there is a margin of 2 centimeters to the edges - as in the photo.
Place the resulting form in a preheated oven and immediately reduce the heat to 100C. To bake the dessert according to the recipe, you will need exactly 60 minutes.
Don't remove the meringue right away. If it comes into contact with cold air, it will become deformed and deflate. The mold must cool in the oven.
You can take out the already cooled cake that has remembered its shape, place it on a beautiful cake plate and decorate with whipped cream and pre-prepared pieces of fresh fruit. For lovers of piquancy and originality in recipes, add passion fruit or feijua as fruit.
Requests for decoration:
Try to have the cake decorated just before serving. Because fruit juice can soak through the hard but brittle crust and ruin the appearance.
This recipe makes 8 servings, which can be shared by two people if desired. The lightness and low calorie content of the meringue cake does not allow you to get enough of the dessert and move away from the plate, even for a moment. The baked goods are certainly tender, crispy, sweet and unobtrusive.
And here is a visual aid - a video clip about preparing dessert.
Interesting facts about dessert - Pavzilla and Palokong
From love to “Anna” the story is full of various events from different times. For example, just recently, 15 years ago, the New Zealand national museum Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, on its birthday created a huge 45-meter-long Pavlova cake according to a historical recipe (see photo). Due to its enormous size, Annushka was renamed “Pavzilla” to denote its scale and pomp. The Minister of New Zealand, Jenny Shipley, had the honor of sharing this dessert among the guests and heroes of the occasion.
But the years go by and the popularity of the eternally young ballerina is still gaining momentum, captivating with her improvement again and again. This is confirmed by facts that happened in 2005 in the same New Zealand, which dotes on the work of confectionery art “Anna Pavlova”. A huge sweet cake “Pavlokong” became a decoration of the Eastern Institute of Technology, thanks to its students. To make such a huge devotion to dessert, it took as many as 5 thousand egg whites, a hundred kilos of sugar and the same number of liters of pure cream. The dessert recipe was followed in this case as well.
So the magnificence of the ballerina of the last century, the incomparable Pavlova, remained among us, in memories, photos and the history of the creation of a dessert loved in all corners of the planet. And even those who are not at all passionate about art and do not understand who we are talking about will definitely, after trying this dessert, take an interest in the biography of a man who managed to conquer the hearts of the people so much that he never died.
