Saturday, March 26th, 2011
PAVLOVA ROULADE – a fabulously easy dessert that looks superb!
PAVLOVA ROULADE
8 egg whites
2 cups caster sugar
1 T maize cornflour
1 T white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T extra maize cornflour
Cream & Strawberry Filling: 300ml cream, 750g strawberries.
Lemon Curd Filling: 300ml cream, ½ cup lemon curd
Preheat oven to 160oC. Grease 26 x 38cm swiss roll tin, line with baking paper, overhanging. Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric beater until soft peaks form. Add sugar a very little at a time, beating in. Beat until firm peaks form. Sift cornflour over mixture, then add vanilla and vinegar very gently and fold through.
Spread mixture into the tin and cook 20 minutes or until just firm. Cool for 5 minutes, meanwhile place a clean teatowell on the bench top with baking paper on top. Sift extra cornflour over the baking paper. After 5 minutes cooling invert the pan so the pavlova turns out on top of the baking paper. Remove the lining and cool. Score a line 2cm (1 finger width) from the long edge of the pavlova.
Whip cream with electric beater until soft peaks form then spread cream in a line along the long edge of the pavlova closest to you, For the strawberry filling slice one third of the strawberries and spread on top of cream, for the lemon curd filling fold the curd into the thickened cream then spread evenly over the whole pavlova. Use the teatowell and baking paper to roll the pavlova to you firmly, lifting the paper and rolling until it looks like a log. Carefully lift onto a serving plate with the join at the bottom. Dust with icing sugar, slice and decorate with mint leaves or strawberries.
Other variations:
- Spice it Up: Add 1T cinnamon or 1 T ground ginger
- Yoghurt and peaches filling
- Chocolate Roulade: Add 1 T cocoa and reduce the cornflour by 1 T
- Chocolate Roulade Filling: Use a blackberry jam and cream filling
- Chocolate Roulade Filling 2: Jam, yoghurt and pitted cherries
THICK LEMON CURD– Makes 3 cups
200g butter
1 cup caster sugar
grated rind and juice of 3 lemons
4 eggs
Melt butter in a pot over medium heat. Using a whisk add the caster sugar, lemon rind and juice, and the eggs, whisking well to combine. Whisk continuously as it thickens and comes to the boil. Remove from the heat just as its about to boil vigorously, cool When cold, cover and store in the fridge where it will thicken.
Variation: add ½ cup passionfruit pulp or squashed raspberries during the cold stage
CRYSTALLISED MINT LEAVES
1 egg white, beaten lightly
10 small apple mint sprigs
2 T caster sugar
Spread a little egg white over the surface of each leaf. Dip into caster sugar then place on baking paper until dry.