raspberry white chocolate and pistachio pavlova - xmas week 2019

raspberry white chocolate and pistachio pavlova - xmas week 2019

• 16 Dec 2019

Welcome to Christmas Week 2019. This year I've made a range of items including a few slightly more ambitious dessert items which you could serve for dessert on Christmas Day.



Recently I watched an episode of Bill's Kitchen - Notting Hill in which Bill whipped up some individual strawberry white chocolate and pistachio pavlovas. For Christmas Day I thought it would be nice to make a larger pavlova to share and as raspberries are in season I swapped them for the strawberries that were in the original recipe.

I always have trouble cooking meringue in my gas oven as the oven tends to go out at lower temperatures. Every time I checked the pavlova the oven had gone out and after an hour of baking, the pavlova was no-where near cooked. In the end I needed to switch the oven on three times and baked this pavlova for 2 hours before it was firm. It seemed to be worth the effort because the pavlova disappeared in the blink of an eye.



Here's the recipe for you which makes a 7 inch pavlova. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 



Raspberry pistachio and white chocolate pavlova – inspired by a Bill Granger recipe
Serves 6
Ingredients
4 large egg-whites 
200g caster sugar 
1 tsp cornflour 
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
100g white chocolate, roughly chopped 
80g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

To decorate
150g fresh raspberries 
1 tbsp icing sugar  
300 ml cream
1 tsp vanilla extract  
A few mint leaves
A few chopped pistachios

Method
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Trace a 7 inch circle onto the paper with a pencil then turn the paper upside down. You’ll use this as template for the Pavlova.

Place the egg whites into the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer with a pinch of salt and whisk to soft, shiny peaks. Gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Whisk well after each spoon full of sugar. Whisk until the mixture is really stiff and very shiny - the mixture should stand up in peaks once you lift out the whisk. Using a metal spoon, gently fold through the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla followed by the white chocolate and most of the pistachios, reserving a few for decoration. 

Once folded together, pile or pipe the meringue mixture onto the baking tray, keeping within the marked circle. Smooth the top so it resembles a flat cake. It needs to be at least 5-6 cm (2-3 inches) high to get a marshmallow interior. Make a small dip in the centre of the Pavlova.

Reduce the oven temperature to 140°C. Bake the Pavlova for 1½ hours or until lightly coloured and dry to the touch, then switch off the oven. Open the door to allow the meringue to cool down completely in the switched off oven. When cold, remove the Pavlova from the baking tray and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.



Serving
Mash 7 of the raspberries with the icing sugar until the berries have broken down (you can use frozen berries for this). Whip the cream until thick, add the vanilla extract then swirl through the crushed raspberries. Dollop the cream over the top of the Pavlova, top with the remaining berries and then add the remainder of the pistachios and the mint leaves.





This is a delicious confection and one worthy of serving on Christmas Day.

See you all again tomorrow with Day 2 of Xmas week 2019,

Bye for now,

Jillian