Last week I decided to make a special pavlova here at Struan Farm to celebrate Thanksgiving in a kiwi way.
While we used to host more traditional Thanksgiving dinners with roast turkey, sweet potato/kumara and pumpkin pie when I moved to NZ many years ago now, we don't any more. Turkeys here are free range, hard/impossible to find fresh even in good butcher shops, and quality varies widely. So I've given up. But the holiday remains special in my heart.
I'd seen a recipe for a Christmas pavlova in the latest issue of Dish magazine and decided that would be fun to make to celebrate Thanksgiving.
This pav is made in two layers, and has a bit of cocoa, cinnamon and cloves marbled through the whipped egg whites before baking. Cream and mascarpone are whipped with vanilla paste. Half of the cream is then mixed with smashed raspberries, which is spread between the two layers. The rest of the plain, whipped mixture is smeared on top, after which various elements are added. It's meant to be rustic and over the top. They suggest little meringues dipped in dark chocolate and brushed with edible gold paint (I did those, since I hadn't used edible paint before!), edible flowers, edible gold stars and fruit. I used a mix of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, pomegranate arils and strawberries for colour and taste. And to finish warm "dulce de leche" drizzled on top.
Yes, it was rather special. Will definitely make this one again, even if it did take all day!
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