strawberry all in one pavlova

strawberry all in one pavlova

• 27 Jan 2025

It's the Australia Day public holiday today, so I decided to make a pavlova topped with whipped cream and some fresh strawberries. I've been making pavlovas my whole life using the tried and trusted method of slowly incorporating 60g of caster sugar for every 30g of egg white before adding a little bit of vinegar, cornflour and vanilla, that was until last year when I saw Adam Liaw make an all in pavlova on The Cook Up.

It was a revelation. There was no gradual adding of caster sugar, instead he used icing mixture instead of caster sugar and just put all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisked it for 8 minutes and hey presto, he had meringue. As icing mixture already includes starch, there's no need to add any extra cornflour, you just need egg whites, a pinch of salt and some vinegar and vanilla extract. 

Since then I've made a batch of meringues and and a pavlova using this method but I found the pavlova very sweet so I've reduced the sugar a little in the recipe. It's still a struggle baking a pavlova in my gas oven. It doesn't have a temperature option below 160°C. It just has 'minimum' and it took 3½ hours in the oven at minimum before the pavlova was cooked enough to remove it from the baking paper.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16cm pavlova. If you'd like to make a bigger pavlova just increase the quantity of egg whites and icing mixture. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

All in One Pavlova

90g egg whites, from approximately 3 egg whites 
Pinch of salt
135g icing mixture 
¾ tsp white vinegar 
¾ tsp vanilla extract

 
Topping
200mls thickened cream, whipped to soft peaks
1 punnet strawberries, washed, hulled and dried
Icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Line a flat baking tray with baking paper and using a 16cm tin as your guide, mark out a circle on the paper. Flip the paper over and use this as your template. Place the paper onto the baking tray.

Place the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer with a pinch of salt and whisk on low speed until just combined. Add the icing mixture to the bowl and beat at high speed to form a glossy stiff meringue. This will take about 8 minutes. Gently fold through the vinegar and vanilla extract.

Spoon the meringue onto the baking paper to form a 16cm circle with a slightly flattened top. This will subside during the baking process creating a well for the cream. Place the pavlova in the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 130°C, conventional, or the lowest setting for your oven and bake for 1¼ - 1½ hours or until the pavlova is dry and very lightly coloured. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlova to cool for a further 1 1⁄2 - 2 hours in the switched off oven, wedging the door open very slightly with a chopstick.

When cool, remove the pavlova from the baking paper and store in an airtight container. Just before serving, top the pavlova with the lightly whipped cream and berries and a dusting of icing sugar. 

This pavlova didn't make it into work. I shared it with my neighbours who were very pleased that I did. It was simply delicious. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian