I baked: Delia Smith's Pavlova with Fresh Strawberries

Earlier this year, my mother-in-law gave me one of her treasured cookbooks - Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course from the 90s. Though it does not have glossy photos and such, I love flipping through the pages and learning how to cook properly... like making sauces, stocks, and cooking the perfect egg!

I had some leftover whipping cream from Christmas and Hubby suggested making meringues or pavlova for our New Year's Eve dinner. I went straight to my trusted Delia's cookbook and hurrah, found a recipe for making pavlova. Have eaten pavlova and meringues loads of times, but it's my first time making it! As Delia puts it, "it is very difficult to make if you don't have right recipe, but dead easy if you do"!

Pavlova is a delicious pudding from Australia, and is usually served with sharp fruits to balance the sweetness of the meringue. We found some lovely Korean strawberries (not too sour) to go with our pavlova. The pavlova turned out looking and tasting great -- I was very pleased and most of all, my kids were extremely pleased as they got to eat this on New Year's Eve after dinner and also on New Year's Day for breakfast! (They must have thought it was the ideal breakfast.. what a way to start 2012!)

Baby D was delighted to get pavlova for breakfast on New Year's Day!

Pavlova with fresh strawberries
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves 8

Ingredients
3 large fresh egg whites
175g caster sugar

For the topping
250g strawberries (you can also use raspberries, redcurrants, blueberries etc)
A little icing sugar
400ml whipped cream (original recipe 275ml, but we increased this since we love lots of cream with our pavlova)

1. Preheat oven to 150°C.

2. Place the egg whites in a large clean bowl and have the sugar measured and ready. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without them sliding out (do not overbeat the eggs though as they will collapse if you do). I used a hand whisk, it took me about 5 minutes.

Whisking gives you strong arms

 Turn the bowl upside down and it will not slide down... that's how you know it's ready

3. When they're ready, start to whisk in the sugar, approximately 25g at a time, whisking after each addition until all the sugar is mixed in. It will look thick and glossy now.

4. Use a lightly oiled baking sheet lined with silicone paper. I have no idea why my baking paper ended up sticking to my pavlova though!! Using a metal tablespoon, spoon the meringue mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, forming a circle about 8 inches (20cm) in diameter. Using a tip of a skewer, make little swirls in the meringue all around the edge, lifting the skewer up sharply each time to leave tiny peaks.

Note: After baking, simply move the pavlova slightly on the paper so it does not stick.

5. Place the baking sheet in the oven, then immediately turn down the heat to 140°C and leave it to cook for 1 hour. Then turn the heat completely off, but leave the pavlova inside the oven until it's completely cold. (Leave the door close! Delia suggests making pavlova in the evening and leaving it in the turned off oven overnight to dry out)

6. To serve, lift it from the baking sheet, peel off the paper and place it on a serving dish. Just before serving, spread the whipped cream and arrange the strawberries on top of the cream and dust with a little sifted icing sugar. Serve cut into wedges. (Do not decorate too far in advance or it will go soggy. Btw, we decorated half of the pavlova only since we were only eating half on NYE)

Korean strawberries

Full set of photos available to view here.