Easter Pavlova - A Recipe!

The second desert I made for Easter Sunday lunch with the family was an Easter themed pavlova, a Mary Berry recipe that I also made last Easter so knew it was going to be yummy. This is what you will need:

• 6 egg whites.
• 350g caster sugar.
• 2tsp cornflour
• 2tsp white wine vinegar.
• A jar of lemon curd.
• 500ml whipping cream.
• Punnet of raspberries.
• Bag of mini eggs.

So to start separate your 6 eggs and put all the whites in the bowl of a mixer make sure the bowl is very clean and do not get any shell or yolk in your whites. You can use a hand whisk for this if you like but I wouldn't encourage doing it by hand unless you have extremely strong arms as it takes a hell of a lot of whisking!

Set your mixer to full power and whisk away until the eggs start to thicken and turn white once your mixture is forming stiff peeks start adding the caster sugar a spoon full at a time whilst the mixer is still on full power. Once all your caster sugar is in your egg whites should look glossy and very thick like the image above. The last step in making the meringue mixture is to mix 2 tsp of cornflour with 2 tsp of white wine vinegar then gently fold this in to the stiff egg whites and now they are ready to bake.

To make your pavlova formation start by spreading half the meringue mixture into a large circle on some grease proof paper on a large flat baking sheet. Try make the circle an even thickness by using the back of a spoon to distribute the mixture, add the rest of the meringue to a piping bag and pipe little 'nests' all around the outside edge of the circle. It doesn't have to be perfect as you can tell I do not have the greatest piping skills but once its covered in cream it doesn't make much difference. 

Put your meringue into a preheated oven at 160 degrees then turn down to 140 degrees as soon as you put it in. Leave to bake for 1.5-2 hours checking it after an hour to see how its doing. If the meringue is crisp to touch and comes off the paper easily then it is done and should now be pale cream in colour. Do not remove the pavlova from the oven, this is vital just turn the oven off and leave too cool slowly in the oven. If you remove it straight away the dramatic change in temperature will cause the meringue to crack. 

Once the meringue is completely cool whisk 500ml of double or whipping cream with an electric whisk  until nice and thick then stir in several tablespoons of lemon curd to flavour the cream. Add a teaspoon of lemon curd to each nest followed by a tablespoon of the lemon cream and then fill the centre of the meringue with the rest of the cream smoothing it out with the back of a spoon. 

Add little chocolate mini eggs to each nest and pile a punnet of raspberries in the centre on top of the lemon cream. 

This is such a pretty and tasty desert and the perfect pudding to end an Easter Sunday lunch or for any day of the week for that matter. Each serving should have its own little nest with chocolate eggs making it ease to portion.

I hope this recipe made your mouth water! Thank you for reading.

Loulou.