This week on Ramsay’s recipes, I decided to make a dessert. A recipe that stuck out to me was pavlova with raspberry curd.
Pavlova is a meringue baked for over an hour to achieve the textural perfection that this dish is known for. The raspberry curd provides flavor in addition to a different kind of texture. Pavlova, on its own, is relatively dry, so the curd helps even it out.
Ingredients include: egg white, sugar, cornstarch, distilled white vinegar, vanilla extract, pink/red food coloring (optional), unsalted butter, raspberries, egg yolks, lemon juice, pinch of salt, and lemon zest.
The steps for this recipe are:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. While the oven is heating up, mix the vanilla, white vinegar, and cornstarch in a bowl and set it aside.
- Next, add to a separate bowl: egg whites and sugar, then mix on a medium speed until it’s combined (this should take around a minute). Then, the speed of the hand mixer should be increased for the next two minutes of mixing. At this point, soft peaks should have formed. The cornstarch mix in the bowl from earlier is to be added, and a couple drops of red food coloring to your liking. Mix for another 3-5 mins until glossy peaks form in the meringue.
- Once this step is complete, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the mixture into a three to four inch circle at least an inch high. Put the tray in the oven and reduce the heat to 220°F as quickly as possible. Let it bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and allow a 3-hour cooling time. The most important thing to note for this step is that you CANNOT OPEN THE OVEN WHATSOEVER even when it’s cooling. For me, this step was hard because I’m someone who frequently breaks this rule because of anticipation.
- While it’s cooling, attention can be turned to the raspberry curd. You will need a fine strainer and a heatproof bowl for this step. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. You know the flame is too high if the butter begins to bubble. Add the sugar, egg yolk, raspberries, salt, and lemon juice. Cook this mixture until it thickens like pudding, around 7-9 minutes. Strain it through the strainer and add lemon zest after to taste. To store this while the pavlova is cooling, add a layer of cling film directly onto the curd (this helps a film not form on the top), and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- This step is optional, but a possible addition is chocolate-covered strawberries.
- Finally, to plate this dish: transfer the pavlova to a serving plate. Using a spoon, transfer the curd onto the middle of the pavlova and add the strawberries. You can also shave chocolate and use it for a garnish. Serve with two spoons.
Overall, this was a pretty simple dish to make. I am not a baker, but this turned out really good. The pavlova had the texture of chalk, which is normal, but it melts in your mouth. I think that the curd was definitely needed for this dish for that reason. This satisfies the urges.
