Since I can’t expect anyone to bake a cake for my birthday, I had baked my own. Staying true to my current obsession, I decided to make a pavlova. And since I am me, it HAD to be chocolate, of course.
The original recipe is from nigella.com, I had modified it a bit to make it smaller and less sweet.
Furthermore, my husband bought a regular milk chocolate bar instead of the dark chocolate bar I asked him to.
The original recipe also used raspberries, which I don’t have in abundance, so I used what I had, which were bananas.
When my husband got home from work, I discovered that he had stopped by the grocery store on his way home and picked up a chocolate cake for me...
How sweet of him... but I now have 2 desserts to eat!!! (Luckily, I will be fasting for the next few days, which I hope, will help burn those extra calories..)
Banana Chocolate Pavlova
meringue:
4 egg whites
a pinch of salt
150grams castor sugar
1 teaspoon of white vinegar
1 heaped tablespoon of cocoa powder, sieved
47 gram chocolate bar chopped
topping:
300ml of thick cream or 250ml whipping cream, whipped till stiff
2 bananas, sliced into discs.
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 400deg Farenhite. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, spray with non stick cooking spray.
In a big bowl, whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt till satiny peaks form. Add sugar bit by bit and finally vinegar, whipping in between, till stiff peaks form. Sprinkle cocoa powder and chocolate chunks, gently fold till cocoa is thoroughly incorporated.
Pile the meringue mixture in the middle of the lined cookie sheet in a circle, smoothing the sides.
Place into the middle of the oven. Reduce temperature to 250deg Farenhite immediately. Bake undisturbed for one and a half hours. Turn off oven, leave door ajar and let meringue cool completely.
Turn meringue upside down onto a plate, top with cream and sliced bananas.
I had used thick cream instead of whipped cream, and I just slapped it on straight from the box instead of whipping it up a bit, because I'm lazy. I think using whipped cream would've definitely made it look prettier. The next time I make this, I will make a smaller circle and pile the meringue on higher so that I get a thicker meringue. The original recipe also required you to sprinkle shaved chocolate on top, but heh, i'm not that sophisticated.
Verdict:
This was YUMMEH!! :D
The chopped chocolates gave the pavlova heavenly bits of gooey goodness, and the bananas went really well with the chocolate.
This version was definitely less sweet than the original pavlova, perhaps due to the addition of the cocoa powder. And even with less sugar, the crust was still crunchy!
I think you would definitely prefer this, PB.
A little note:
Make sure you gently fold the cocoa in to retain the volume of the whipped egg whites. The first time I made this, I used my mixer to mix the cocoa powder in and it made the meringue fall flat. The meringue didnt stand when piled on the cookie sheet, it just spread out like a pancake! It's not a total disaster though, coz I went ahead and baked it as instructed, and what came out of the oven was something like a brownie, without flour. Very interesting. :laugh:
.Long Live Chocolate Makers and Cocoa Growers all over the world!
---
No comments:
Post a Comment