Mango, Banana and Passionfruit Pavlova

I can’t believe it took me so long to make a pavlova. I only made my first one this year! I’d heard stories of it being difficult. What piffle! Nothing could be simpler. I urge you to try this recipe, it’s easy as pie…or should I say easy as pav - pie is so much more difficult.

I like to call this version of pav 'man goes bananas with passion'...The tangly zing of passionfruit is just what is needed to cut the sugary sweetness of the meringue. A heavenly summer dessert.

Ingredients

A little butter (to grease your baking tray)

6 egg whites

1 ¼ cups caster sugar

2 tsp corn flour (plus a little extra to dust over your baking tray)

1 tsp white vinegar

½ tsp vanilla extract

300ml cream

2 tbs icing sugar

1 mango, sliced into thin slices (kind of crescent shaped or as near to as possible)

Pulp of 5-6 passion fruit

1 banana thinly sliced o the diagonal.

Preheat your oven to 120C.

Take a baking tray and line it with foil, melt some butter in pan and then brush the melted butter over the foil, dust some  corn flour through a sieve over melted butter, then blow off the excess. This will ensure your ‘pav’ doesn’t stick. Mark a circle approximately 24cm wide on the foil (trace around a plate or cake tin using the handle of a teaspoon as your ‘pen’).

If you have a stainless steel bowl use it (I don’t know if this is a truth or an old wives tale, but it always works for me) if you don’t have one, then ensure that whatever bowl you do use is spotlessly clean, any residual oiliness will stop your eggs form stiffening  properly.

Whisk your egg whites until they form soft peaks. An electric whisk makes this a cinch. Now start gradually adding your sugar, a heaped tablespoon at a time, whisking well after each spoonful. The meringue should start to thicken and become glossy, keep whisking until the peaks are stiff and standing up by themselves. Check the mix to ensure that there is no sugary grittiness, if there is still a sign of sugar then keep whisking until it is gone.

Now add the vanilla, corn flour and vinegar and whisk until combined. Gently spoon the mixture onto the foil so that it sits within the marked circle. Use your spatula to tuft the edges up into little peaks, these will crisp-up nicely and add a fancy flare to the final ‘pav’.

Put the meringue into the preheated oven and bake for 1.5 hours, it should be completely dry to touch. Now turn the oven off, leave the door ajar and let the ‘pav’ cool down completely.  Once cold, it can be transferred to your serving plate, or put in an airtight container until required.

To decorate, whisk the cream and icing sugar until thick and forming firm peaks. Spoon the cream on top of the pav and spread it over the centre. Arrange your banana and mango slices in a decorative manner atop the cream then spoon the passion fruit pulp over the top.