I’m back bb’s!
I officially finished up the book this morning* (!!!) (*actually after I simultaneously cry and sleep for 2 days) so now I’m ready to just go full speed ahead on here. Mo’ food mo’ money mo’ problems, also there’s a new weekly post I wanna try out that involves tools and shit I use in my kitchen all the time.
Gird your loins.
I’m back with a new favorite of mine, da pavlova. I’m always so impressed when I can just take a few ingredients, whip them together and have a very impressive dish. Maybe I’m easily impressed but I’ll marry you if you give me a slightly chewy meringue covered in whipped cream and macerated fruit.
Pavlovas have been popping up everywhere, Adrianna made the glory s’more and there’s talk about vegan pavlova with chickpea liquid that I’m still a little freaked out/very interested in.
The magic that happens here involves all the graham cracker crumbs so it sort of tastes like a crispy chewy bowl of lucky charms. Then that’s just casually topped with sour cream spiked whipped cream and macerated strawberries. Are you turned on yet?
I’ve gone ahead and made these mini because I can easily just grab it with my hand and smash it in my face that way, and that way you can sort of serve it alongside the whipped cream and strawberries and people can help themselves. If the strawberries and whipped cream aren’t your thing, freak, then I would definitely just scoop these bad boys out on the baking sheet and dip them in super dark chocolate once they’re cooled. I mean honestly, I ate half of these plain, right off the baking sheet. #farmtotable #bakingsheettomouth
Mini Graham Cracker Pavlovas
Makes 18 cute bebes
For the Pavlovas
7 graham crackers
4 large egg whites
1 pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups white granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
For the Strawberries
1 lb strawberries
1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
For the Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoons white granulated sugar
Preheat your oven to 300F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Prepare the graham crackers by pulsing them in a food processor until a semi-fine crumb happens, think the next level up from sand. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the egg whites and the pinch of salt. Using the whisk attachment beat on low for a few seconds to break up the whites the up the speed to medium and whip until nice and frothy and you have very soft peaks. Once you get to that stage add the sugar a tablespoon at a time so you don’t just dump it all in and deflate the whites. Once all the sugar’s added, turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl real quick to knock any sugar back down in there then turn the mixer to high and beat until you have nice thick glossy stiff peaks, think every teenage boys hair in 2002.
Add the vanilla and vinegar (calm down, it’s for stabilizing the whites and you can’t taste it) and beat for another 15 seconds or so. Remove the bowl from the mixer and tap the whisk attachment on the side to knock any meringue loose.
Sprinkle in the cornstarch and graham cracker crumbs then quickly and gently fold everything together. You’re going to lose some of that air you just incorporated but don’t sweat it.
For size, I used a medium size cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) and scooped two of those (3 tablespoons total) one on top of the other for each meringue. Once they’re all scooped out, 9 on each baking sheet, use a large spoon to sort of indent the center of each one so there’s a vessel for the whipped cream and strawberries. If you have any crazy spikes or rogue portions of the pavlova just use your finger to sort of smooth it out.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, then turn off the oven, crack open the door, and let them cool completely in the oven, about 1 hour. This seems like a long time to make these but you can easily make the pavlovas a day ahead of time and keep them at room temp (NOT THE FRIDGE) and they should be just fine.
While they cool prepare the strawberries by hulling them , slicing them, and tossing them with the sugar. Wrap up the bowl and keep in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
Once the pavlovas are cooled and you’re ready to serve them, make the sour cream spiked whipped cream by whipping together the heavy cream, the sour cream, and the sugar until soft peaks form. You can do this in a stand mixer or do what I do and throw it all in a pint size mason jar and use an immersion blender to whip it up. It’s almost foolproof, we’ll talk about that more on Wednesday.
To serve top each pavlova with a little bit of the whipped cream and some strawberries. These are just a little fragile so it’s a good idea to assemble right before you serve or even better just put all the components on the table and let people build their own.
