For the Love of Pavlova

Let me enlighten you with a love story.

It began in early 2008. At that moment in time, I was developing a habit of reading up local food blogs in my spare time. But it was this post specifically that made me believe in love at first sight.

Now, up to this point, I've only heard of Alexis and could only entertain daydreams of being a 20-something career woman who can actually afford to go to this sort of chic places to socialize with other 20-to-30-something career people (I blame the tv for putting these ideas in my head!). But now that I've a full-time job that entitles me to that position, I figured that my excuses have run its course.

So, in one of those rare moments when I'm actually in the office with nothing to do, I grabbed a friend along for an early lunch to Bangsar, where we pretended we were in a scene from SatC (brownie points if you know what this stands for!) and had gossip-over-salad for lunch and sins-with-cream for dessert. And I know that from the moment the waiter placed it in front of me for my indulgence, I was convinced that this feeling that was pitter-pattering underneath my ribcage... it's real. And a bite was all it took for me to believe that the feeling is mutual. And thus began my beautiful affair with the Pavlova. The light-airy-marshmallowy bite paired with sweetened cream and the sharp fresh tang of strawberries... Really. How can you not salivate at this ?!?!

Of course, since then, I have toyed with the idea to make my own Pav (not to be confused with Pavilion) a few times but I was worried I might taint those beautiful memories I've had with Alexis. So... call it a call of the spontaneity when out of restlessness I decided to make my very first Pav for Mother's Day last Sunday evening. At this point in time, I've the recipes memorized and stamped and inked into my brain from those countless times that I've perused through other people's attempt at Pavlova. So preparation didn't take up much time. HOWEVER, I do have a problem with the sugar content as prescribed in the recipe though. Most of the recipes (ranging from 4-to-6 eggs Pav) calls for 1 cup of granulated sugar. I'd decided to halved this (and still think it's too much!).

Dealing with white eggs for the first time was both nerve-wrecking and exciting. I knew the consistency that I was looking for, but I want to be extra careful for my first attempt. And lo and behold, you have no idea how excited I was to see a bowl of white fluffies!

Even Pixie wants to jump in.

Originally I had planned to make two 8-inch discs to make a Pav sandwich, but I realised too late that I don't have enough egg-whites for that. So decided on just one just 8-inch mountain instead. And in all honesty, I've no clue on how to handle this, so for a moment there, all you can see is a mess before I came up with this:

Yes. I know. It's still a mess, but it looks tangible enough.

So, with fingers crossed, popped this in 120 C pre-heated oven for 1.5hours and leave it in the oven to cool down completely, says the instruction. Of course, this wasn't what happened since my oven's temperature is all whacked-out and the Pav got browned early on in the baking process. So I turned down the heat to 80C and baked it for a further 15 - 20 minutes just to be sure.

It came out alright, but it looked slightly deflated, so I had reasons to be worried. I packed it up and left it to cool down overnight. Bought (Indonesian) strawberries (saved on my carbon prints but found it rather sour) and creams last night after work, and finished off the assembly.

The Verdict?

A clean plate in under an hour.