Your dinner guests will love Pavlova, a light-as-air dessert that is crispy on the outside, but soft as marshmallows on the inside. Plus, it's gluten-free.
Pavlova is one of the best examples of the sorcery of sugar and egg whites that originated in Germany and today appears in the cuisines of New Zealand, Australia and the United States. The dessert, named after the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, is really just a meringue base (egg whites and sugar whipped together until fluffy and stiff) with a little corn starch beaten in.
I like to add a few other ingredients as well, such as vanilla extract and salt to balance the flavors, and cream of tartar or a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar to make the meringue more stable.
The meringue is piped out into a shell that will be baked in a low-temperature oven and topped with fruit and whipped cream after it has cooled.
When preparing a Pavlova, make sure your bowl and beaters are very clean and free of fat or grease or those egg whites won't whip. It's also important for the egg whites to be at room temperature before beating them to get more volume.
Superfine (caster) sugar makes a smoother and glossier meringue. It can be found in some supermarkets or online, but you can make it yourself by pulsing granulated sugar in a food processor or blender until it reaches a super-fine, but not powdery, consistency. For best results add the sugar very slowly after the whites are foamy and white.
Use a pencil to trace the outline of a 10-inch dinner plate on a sheet of parchment paper and then turn the parchment over onto the baking sheet so it doesn't bake on the pencil side.
You can make the meringue base ahead of time and keep it in an airtight container for several days. But once whipped cream and fruit are added it needs to be eaten within a few hours or the meringue will soften.
