Pavlova with pomegranate

Yesterday we had a wonderful dinner at a friend’s house. My contribution to the meal was a Pavlova with pomegranate, inspired by Vicky’s recipe. It was very well complimented. 🙂 Here’s the translation.

Recipe

Ingredients

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar (processed in the food processor to make it finer)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
vanilla
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (confectioners)
pomegranate seeds (1-2 fruits)

How to make: To make the meringue, use a food mixer to beat the egg whites, medium speed, until foamy peaks are formed. Add sugar a tablespoon at a time. The mix will look thick and shiny. Add vinegar and vanilla. Beat a bit more. Spread the mix on a cookie pan, lined with parchment paper. Give it a round shape, a little shallower in the middle to receive the chantilly later. Bake in preheated 250 F oven (120 C) for 50 minutes. Leave the meringue in the oven to cool off for about 2 hours. Transfer to serving plate. To make the chantilly, use a food processor to beat the heavy cream with the powdered sugar. Spread the chantilly on the meringue. Top with pomegranate seeds.

Notes and tips: If the meringue has started turning yellow, you’ve baked it too long! For vanilla, I used vanilla extract, about 1 teaspoon for the meringue and one more for the chantilly. You may want to experiment adding two tablespoons of powdered sugar for the chantilly instead of one. Instead of pomegranate seeds, you can use strawberries, blueberries or blackberries. Better to pick one fruit. The Pavlova in the photo has seeds from two pomegranate fruit. That’s a bit too much. I put it all because I felt bad for the time it took my husband to remove the seeds from the fruit. Today I saw that Trader Joe’s sells containers with clean seeds. I’ll know better next time 🙂 The meringue is a bit fragile. Try to lift it with one or two big flat spatulas. Mine was pretty big and cracked as you can see. You can make the meringue ahead of time and keep in the fridge but assemble the dessert just before you’re ready to serve. When making the meringue, be sure that whites have NO yolk and that the utensils are clean with no grease remnants on the walls, or the whites will never turn into meringue. That said, it’s a very easy to make dessert that everybody will enjoy. Light and fresh, it calls for seconds!

I found these useful tips for how to make meringue.