Lately I’ve been thinking often of my second home, the homeland of my mother and her family— reconnecting with old friends via facebook and linkedin, the Christchurch Earthquake and now my close friend’s father’s death (in Wellington) just the other day.  Well, all these thoughts turned into my contribution to our cooking club’s Global Cuisine Night. I made Pavlova, the national dessert of NZ for the first time.  

I have such fond memories of “Pav” and will probably make it again for my son’s third grade class when they have their monthly country food tasting in May.  They’ll be learning about New Zealand and trying foods from there then. 

Pavlova was fought over its origin by the Australians and New Zealanders up until recently as it was finally traced to NZ.  The meringue cake was originally made in New Zealand and an Australian chef named it after the visit to both countries of the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova in the 1920’s.  

New Zealand Pavlova (national dessert of New Zealand)

4 egg whites

1 cup super fine sugar

1 tsp white vinegar

3 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 cups fresh cream to whip

fresh fruit (cut and drained on paper towel)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment. 

Beat egg whites with whisk attachment of electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Add sugar slowly (tablespoon at a time), continuing to beat entire time, add vinegar, vanilla and cornstarch.  Continue to beat for another 5-7 minutes until shiny and stiff.  Place mixture on parchment in a circle (or several circles for smaller/individual servings), swirling the top to be flat.  Place in oven and reduce to 250F.  Bake meringue for an hour.  Turn oven off and keep pavlova in there until cold (over night is best) so that the outside is crispy.

Before serving whip cream, spread on top and decorate with fruit (kiwifruit, berries).  I made two large “circles” and layered the cream between and on top.

The crispy outside and chewy inside make this such a popular dessert.  It’s light but very sweet.  The fruit you choose can give a great combination of sweet-tart.