ROLLED PAVLOVA WITH LEMON CURD AND MACERATED STRAWBERRIES

Recently my mum made me a rolled pavlova. As a kiwi born and bread girl I've had my fair share of Pavlova, its a staple at Christmas time and indeed pretty much any special occasion. Growing up we always had a pav at Christmas time which my Nana would make and decorate with strawberries and kiwifruit. I love the layers of crunchy, chewy, fluffy meringue. I hadn't heard of a rolled variety before and I was intrigued.

Now lets not get in to any arguments on when and where the Pavlova was invented. Its a very popular dessert in both New Zealand and Australia both claiming ownership. Why can't we just share?Australians like it with passionfruit, we prefer kiwi. Plenty of Pavlova for all and anyway its named after a Russian ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova so no doubt they like it as well. Wikipedia says it was named after her when she toured EITHER Australia or New Zealand in the 1920s and that Formal research puts the originality of the dessert to a chef from Wellington, New Zealand. Wikipedias words, not mine, read it for yourself here.

Mum made me one on my last night in Christchurch, it was filled with cream, natural yoghurt, lemon curd and topped with macerated strawberries.
The trick to rolling it without it cracking mum said was to lay the meringue out really thinly and not to cook it for very long.
I loved the soft, airy melt in your mouth consistency that this style of preparation achieved.

The recipe will serve around 8 to 10 people.

Ingredients

Meringue
4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour

Filling
250ml cream
3 Tbsp greek yoghurt
3 Tbsp lemon curd

Topping
1 punnet strawberries
1 Tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Method

Pre heat oven to 190c
Line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
Whisk egg whites until firm peaks form then add sugar and sifted cornflour, continue whisking until thick and glossy.
Pour the meringue mixture out on to the grease proof paper and spread thinly, around a couple of centre metres thick.
Bake for 8 minutes until light brown on top and the meringue is spongy to touch.
Allow it to cool then turn the baking tray over on to some more grease proof paper or a clean tea towel and pull the paper away from the bottom of the pavlova. Dust with icing sugar.

Whisk together the cream, yoghurt and lemon curd, spread the filling evenly across the whole meringue. Now using the tea towel to start, slowly start to roll the meringue inwards like a swiss roll with the edge ending up at the bottom.
Sprinkle sugar and balsamic on the strawberries to coat them, leaving them for about 30 minutes to macerate (soften and marinate) before serving with the rolled Pavlova.

YUM YUM!
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