Here's how to do it:
Ingredients
Eggs at room temperature
Caster Sugar
Cornflour
White Vinegar
Kitchen paper towels
Ceramnic bowls
Baking Tray
Large square of silicone paper cut to fit baking tray
Kitchen timer
Metal spoon
Offset Spatula
Serving plate
Whipped cream, to serve
Berries, to serve
Method
1. Heat oven to 160 degrees fan forced
2. Wipe out mixer bowl, whisk attachment, ceramic bowls and your hands with a wad of kitchen towls soaked in white vinegar. This removes all traces of fats, oils and detergents from your working surfaces, all of which are deadly to whipped egg whites.
3. Seperate eggs. Crack egg shell gently but firmly on your kichen counter surface. Cradling the egg in both hands over the top of one of the bowls, gently prise the two shell halves apart with your thumbs, allowing the yolk to remain in one of the half-shells, and let the white gently run into the bowl below. Now, tip the yolk and the remaining egg white into your left hand, gently cradling the yolk, while allowing the egg white to run through your fingers into the bowl. Put the yolk into the separate bowl, and pour the white into the cleaned mixer bowl. Repeat for as many egg whites as you will need for your pavlova (In this tutorial, I have used 5 egg whites)
4. Turn your mixer onto it's lowest seeting, and allow the whites to churn gently so that the whisk can start to aerate the whites and break up the albumen so that it can take up as much air as possible later. If you start out whippingyour whites on full spped, they will stiffen prematurely, and you will not incorporate as much air as they would otherwise do.
5. Once the whites are foamy around the edges and moving around the mixer bowl freely, you can increase the mixer spped to med-high and allow to run for a couple of minutes, until the whites are well foamy and almost at the stage where they will hold a peak - not quite at "soft peak" stage.
6. Leaving the mixer on med-high, start adding the caster sugar, using the ratio of 4 tablespoons of caster sugar per egg white. If you use 4 whites, that's 16 tablespoons; 5 = 20, and so on. It can help tp count out your sugar beforehand if you are easily distracted, or have a husband or children who love to help, but yet somehow, don't!
7. Once all the sugar is added, allow to run for a further minute, then switch off, and using the metal spoon, scrape down the sides and give the mixture a quick stir by hand to incorporate any stray sugar grains from the side of the bowl.
8. Turn the mixer back onto med-high, set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes, and leave to run while you have a cup of tea. This beating time ensures that the caster sugar is well dissolved into the whites, so your pavlova will not "weep" once it is baked.
9. When the mixture is ready, is will be quite thick and almost stiff, and will stand to a sharp peak when you lift the whisk from the bowl. The meringue mixture will also be very shiny and glossy, and, if you rub a little between your thumg and forefinger, you should not be able to feel any grains of sugar.
10. At this point, for every 4 whites, add 1 tablespoon of cornflour, and 2 teaspoons of white vinegar. This is what keeps the oeey-gooey-ness inside the pav. Whisk again briefly until everything is smooth and combined. (Don't worry, you can't taste the vinegar in the cooked pav.)
11. Using a little of the mixture, add a dob of meringe to the back 4 corners of the baking paper square and affix it, dob-side down, to the baking tray. This will ensure that your paper won't move around whilst you are creating your pavlova.
12a. Scoop all the meringue out of the bowl, into a heap in the middle of the baking paper.
12b. Using your offset spatula, form the mergine into a round, and straighten the sides and smooth the top, so it looks much like a smalled meringue-iced cake. You can make the sides straight by holding the spatula at a 90 degree angle to the tray, and running it around the merginue in one smooth movement. But don't worry if it's not perfect, as the next step will resolve any "non-straight-sides" issues.
13. Using your spatula still, we make the pavlova shell - the crust the will be the outside and underside of your finished pav. Holding the spatula perpendicular to the tray, and using just the tip of the blade this time, moving from bottom to top, pull the spatula up the sides of the mergine towards the centre, forming vertical stripes in the mix, moving all the way around the perimeter. When this is done, there will be a messy spot right in the middle, which, using the spatula again, gently smooth into a round.
14. Place the pav into the oven, and immediately turn the oven down to 120 degrees fan-forced. This change in temperature causes the outside of the pav to "seize" straight away, and retain it's shape, while the inside of the meringue will stay luscious and ooey-gooey, thanks to the lowering of the temperature.
15. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes for a 4-5 egg pavlova. When baking time is up, turn off the oven, and crack open the oven door with the handle of a wooden spood, allowing the pav to cool in the oven for a further hour. This step will help reduce cracking and collapse of the shell.
16. Once the pav has cooled for an hour, remove from the oven and allow to cool fully to room temperature.
17. When fully cool, invert pavlove onto serving plate, so the top crusty part is in contact with the plate, and the baking paper is face up. Gently peel away the baking paper. The inside may settle down at the point, which is perfectly normal, as some inner shrinkage of the marshmallow insides will occur during baking.
18. Gently top with a mound of whipped cream, and sprinkle with berries, or even a peppermint crisp (an Australian classic). Serve immediately.
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