AUSTRALIA: Pavlovas

Currently I'm pulling information together to possibly study abroad in the Fall of 2016, and I couldn't be more excited! So, why am I telling you this? Well, the program I'm looking into would be a semester in New South Wales, Australia! Naturally this would make me want to bake something from the land down under, which brings me to what today's post actually is about: pavlovas.

For those of you who have never experienced this fluffy, sweet, miraculous Australian dessert, a pavlova is actually a fairly simple treat to make. It consists of a fluffy meringue that is topped with some sort of fruit or syrup or whipped cream goodness. Drooling yet? I am. 

Ingredients:

6 egg whites

pinch of salt

1 tsp distilled white vinegar

1 1/2 cups sugar (castor/superfine sugar are preferred, but granulated works just as well)

1 tbsp cornstarch

Fruit for topping

Whipped cream, if desired

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225*F 
2. Beat six egg whites in a stand mixer on medium speed until they become frothy and white.        
3. Add a pinch of salt and the vinegar to the egg whites and continue beating until very soft peaks form.
4. Add the sugar slowly, incorporating it into the egg whites as you go. Continue beating the mixture on medium-high speed until harder peaks form.                                                                
5. Add the cornstarch and beat the mixture on high speed until the meringue is stiff. If you're brave, you can test this by flipping your bowl of meringue over and holding it above your head... up to you. :)                                                      
6. Transfer the meringue onto a lined or sprayed cookie sheet, making 6 fluffy piles. These need to be fairly tall. Make sure you press the peaks of the pavlovas down so they do not burn. 
7. Bake pavlovas for 1 hr. 
8. Turn off the oven and crack the door open, but do not remove the pavlovas from the oven until they have cooled to room temperature.                        
9. Remove from oven. Top with fruit and whipped cream. NOTE: I heated blackberries, strawberries, and lemon juice and a couple tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan to make them syrupy and almost like pie filling. Additionally, you could choose to make home-made whipped cream or the chantilly cream from the cream puff recipe I posted earlier, but today I was lazy and just used Reddi-whip.                             
10. Enjoy! 

NOTES/TIPS:

I mentioned at the start of this blog that I promise to always be honest about how these recipes turn out. So, here's the deal: These are DELICIOUS. These are MESSY. 

Actually making the meringue is simple, so it seems to be incredibly easy. However, actually serving these guys can be difficult. Pavlovas are baked meringues, and they are large. So they crack. They stick to the serving utensil. They get everywhere.

 

If you can get past that, though, and manage to get some part of meringue onto a plate with whipped cream and fruit, they are ooey gooey delicious.

FRANCE...again: Cream Puffs

It seems I haven't posted for quite some time now. Unfortunately, with the life of a college student, baking can be hard to come by at times. But the semester is over, and I sprained my ankle badly, which means plenty of baking time!

I'm returning to my roots today by travelling back to France, my first love. There is something about French pastries that I find completely enticing. The recipes seem complex, and they are so easy to mess up. Who doesn't love a good challenge?

So, here we are, discovering cream puffs. These bite sized pastries are light, fluffy, and filled with delicious sweet cream. Yum! Now, despite seeming extremely complicated, I found this guys to be quite easy to make, so have no fear!

The key here is mastering the pate a choux, the magical batter-dough combination that is the "puff" part of the cream puff. Here's the great thing about it, though: once you make it successfully, you can make it a hundred times. (And you'll never forget it--there's a 1:1:1:1:1 ratio for the ingredients!)

Pate a Choux:

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup (4) eggs
• 1 pinch salt
• OPTIONAL: splash of vanilla

Instructions:

1. Measure out 1 cup of water and pour into a saucepan.
2. Add 1 stick of butter and a pinch of salt to the saucepan and bring to boil. (I cut the butter into small chunks to help it become smooth more quickly.) 
3. Once it has come to a boil, remove from heat and add 1 cup of flour to the mixture.
4. Stir constantly until the batter becomes smooth and a ball forms. 
5. Transfer to a stand mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating on medium speed, until smooth. Add the vanilla, if desired.                                                   
6. Pour the mixture into a piping bag if you're fancy. (For the rest of us, a gallon-sized plastic bag will do. Just cut a small hole in the corner of it. NOTE: Remember to cut the hole to be very small. You can make the hole bigger, but you can't make it smaller.)
7. Pipe little mounds of pate a choux out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray, and lightly press the peaks down so they do not burn.
8. Bake! I had heard that allowing the puffs to heat constantly through the initial part of baking helped them form better, so I tried it out. So, I started out with the preheated 425* and immediately after placing the puffs in the oven, I increased the heat to 450* for the first 10 min. Then, I dropped the temperature to 350* for the final 15 min to avoid burning. (I copied Baker Bettie's method here.)                                        
9. Remove the puffs from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Do not fill until they are completely cool.                                                          

Chantilly Cream Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (Or more, if you dare.)

Instructions:

1. Add all ingredients to mixing bowl.                              
2. Whip on Medium-High speed until soft peaks form.

Assembling the Cream Puffs:

1. Option 1: Fill a piping bag with the chantilly cream. Press the tip into the weakest part of the puff, breaking through the choux. Squeeze the bag, filling the puff with cream.
2. Option 2: Fill a piping bag or gallon-sized plastic bag with the chantilly cream. Take a serrated knife and cut the choux, splitting the puff in half. Fill the puff with the chantilly cream. Add sliced strawberries or other fruits, if desired.                   

So, that's it! Make sure you eat these babies fairly quickly--you don't want the cream to make the choux soggy! Bon appetit!