Pavlova results

[sienamystic]

Here it is out of the oven:



As you may be able to see, the top of it got a little fragile, so when I plopped whipped cream on it, it cracked. So I broke it into pieces and served it with strawberries - the inside did, in large part, come out nice and marshmallowy.



It's been voted a very tasty success.

Comments

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

The cocoa made it absolutely fantastic. I'm already thinking of making another one.

Ah, that makes sense about needing more time at the higher temp. I took a wild guess in the other direction, and cut off about ten minutes at the higher temp because....well, I'm not sure what my reasons were, but I guess I had them - so next time I'll let it go the full hour.

Your recipe didn't call for the white wine vinegar and cornstarch that I've seen in other recipes - I wonder what those components do. It turned out well without them.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

Some of the elderly ladies that I polled recommended the corn flour and the vinegar, and others didn't. I've made it both ways, and I haven't seen that it makes it any different. It's supposedly a stabliser, I think? You could give it a try, it doesn't affect the flavour either way.

You would be adding a tablespoon of corn flour when the sugar has all been mixed in - put it in a sieve or something and shake it over the egg white mixture then fold it gently in. (I use one of those scissor-like tea-infuser thingies!) Then, put a teaspoon of vinegar into a desertspoon of hot water, and sprinkle that over the top, fold, and cook.

I had a lot of different temperatures and cooking times given to me - one lady preheated to 160C, then dropped it to 120C as soon as she put the meringue in the oven. Mine came out a bit dry at that temperature - still tasty, but not so marshmallowy. One lady cooked at 100C all the way, but that made mine underdone. I think experimentation is the way to go - which means more meringue for everyone while you perfect the recipe!