Tag: whipped cream

Chocolate and cherry pavlova

Goodtoknow TV

Free & easy recipe video: Watch new how-to recipe videos with goodtoknow and Woman’s Weekly see all videos >

What a show stopper! Billowing crisp meringue topped with soft whipped cream, sweet black cherries, hazelnuts and fresh mint leaves. This one is to good to just bring out at Christmas. With its delicious chocolate meringue and morish chewy centre you will be back in the kitchen making this recipe again and again. Perfect for any celebration as it makes such an impressive dish and can be used as a great alternative to a birthday cake or Christmas Pud! Play with the toppings using different fruit chunks or berries then garnish with cocoa powder or a grated of chocolate.

That’s goodtoknow

You can add a handful of chopped hazelnuts to the meringue mixture for a surprise nutty crunch or scatter them over the meringue nest once you have spooned it onto the baking sheet.

Ingredients

6 large egg whites
300g caster sugar
1tbsp corn flour
1tbsp white wine vinegar
30g cocoa powder
300ml double cream
50g icing sugar
200g fresh cherries
30g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Small handful fresh mint leaves, to garnish

Method

Pre-heat oven to 140°C/275°F/Gas Mark 1. Line a flat baking sheet with baking parchment. Place the egg whites in a large metal bowl and whisk until they form stiff peaks.
Add the sugar a spoonful at a time whisking well after each addition until the mixture is thick and glossy. Add the cornflour, white wine vinegar and cocoa powder and whisk again until combined.
Spoon out onto the prepared baking sheet making swirls of meringue as you place it to a circle approximately 25cm wide. Using the back of a spoon make a slight dip in the centre and build up the sides. Transfer to the oven and bake for 1 hour 15 mins. Turn off the oven, open the door slightly and leave inside until completely cool.
Whip the cream and icing sugar together until soft peaks form then pile onto the cooled chocolate meringue. Scatter with the cherries, hazelnuts and mint leaves to serve.

By Mima Sinclair

Cooked this? Upload a picture to our Facebook page

Nutritional information

Guideline Daily Amount for 2,000 calories per day are: 70g fat, 20g saturated fat, 90g sugar, 6g salt.

Loved this recipe? Try these too!

Today’s poll

What’s your budget to spend on food and drink for Christmas this year?

£151+ 24%
£101-£150 16%
£71-£100 12%
£51-£70 9%
£31-£50 11%
Less than £30 10%
I don’t know yet 6%
I’m not setting a budget 12%

Thanks, your vote has been counted!

We’d like to let you know that this site uses cookies. Without them you may find this site does not work properly and many features may be unavailable. More information on what cookies are and the types of cookies we use can be found here

Best Pumpkin Pie Ever – Come for the Pie, Stay for the Dollop

This Thanksgiving, we’re assuming your turkey will be juicy;
your mashed potatoes lump-free; and your gravy, smooth as silk. You are a
regular visitor here, after all.

However, it’s probably not a bad idea to hedge
your bets and serve a pumpkin pie so tasty and texturally perfect that no
matter what goes wrong, everyone will leave with a smile on
their face, and a delicious memory in their heart. By the way, this is that pie.

After many years of experimentation, I’ve
finally perfected what I think is the ideal formula. As I mention in the video,
I’ve removed an egg white, and replaced it with some additional yolks. This
results in a pie that’s not only richer, but also much less likely to crack.

Of course, you still need to not to overcook it. An extra 5
minutes in the oven is kryptonite to even the most brilliant pumpkin pie
formulas. Use the knife test I demonstrated and you should be fine. Worst case,
there’s always the whipped cream. Ah, the whipped cream.

I remember my friend, and world-famous photographer, Andrew Scrivani telling me about a food stylist whose spoon work is so sexy and
enticing that she makes a good living just specializing in dollops. Well, I’d
like to take this opportunity to apologize for ruining her career.

Once the world sees the slow-mo magic that is the old,
“twist, three-thrusts, and a pull,” I’m assuming she’ll be out of business in
no time. That’s right, now anyone will be able to do magazine-quality dollops like
a boss (and by boss, I mean overpaid food stylist).

Anyway, ruined careers aside, this really is a fantastic,
and incredibly easy pumpkin pie recipe, and I sincerely hope you consider
adding it to your holiday menu this year. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one pumpkin pie:

1 can (15 ounce) pumpkin

1 large egg

3 egg yolks

1 can (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk

1/4 teaspoon freshly, and very finely ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 tsp Chinese 5-spice (or to sub: a small pinch each of
ground star anise, ground cloves, and ground white pepper)

1/2 teaspoon fine salt
9-inch unbaked pie crust

Turkish eggs

I have been worrying a bit recently that the book of this blog, The Bad Cook (which is out TODAY, purchasable here)*, is going to be a disappointment.

This hadn’t crossed my mind until very recently – until recently I had always flicked through it sniggering to myself and going “This is great!!! Definitely worth £1.99.” But now I’m not so sure.

“Does it represent value to my readers?” I think as I sit with a cookbook on my lap, staring out of the window and trying not to pick at my cuticles because it drives my husband nuts.

So I have decided today to alert you to a recipe, which I would pay someone £1.99 to tell me about, which will assuage my feelings of fraudulence.

It is for a turkish eggs thing that Peter Gordon does at his restaurant brasserie cafe thing Les Providores in Marylebone High Street. It is NOT in fusion (sic), which is his cookbook, so I had to source the recipe off a New Zealand website, convert all the measurements, try it out and photograph it.

I’m sure that’s worth £1.99.

So these turkish eggs are poached eggs with yoghurt and a chilli butter. I understand if you think that yoghurt and eggs together sounds gross but I promise it isn’t. This is an incredibly delicious, almost addictive taste and it is very easy to put together for a light supper for you and someone you love. Or just for you alone.

Do not worry if you aren’t brilliant at poaching eggs – I am absolutely hopeless and mine came out just about okay.

So here we go – turkish eggs for 2

2 eggs – the fresher they are, the easier they will be to poach
200g greek yoghurt
1 tbsp olive oil
large pinch of chilli flakes
70g butter
some chopped parsley if you have it

NB – you will notice that there is no salt specified in this recipe. It is not an accident. You can, of course, add as much salt and pepper as you think this needs but personally, I think the lack of salt, the slight blandness, is a really important aspect to this – I don’t think the flavours need it. But you must do whatever you like.

1 In a bowl whisk together the yoghurt and olive oil. It is this whisking and whipping of the yoghurt that makes it so delicious, in my view. You CAN add here a small scraping of crushed garlic, but I don’t think it’s neccessary.

2 In a small pan melt the butter gently until it takes on a very pale brown colour – this takes about 10 mins over a low heat. Don’t be tempted to razz it hot otherwise it will burn. Once it looks to you like it has taken on some colour, add the chilli flakes and swirl around in the butter. Put to one side.

3 Now poach your eggs in some simmering water for 3-4 mins. If you add 100ml white vinegar to the water it should in theory help the process.

4 To assemble, divide the yoghurt between two bowls, then drop an egg on top, pour over the chilli butter and scatter with parsley.

We ate this with toasted sourdough, as they do in Les Providores, but I think this would also be terrific with any sort of flatbread or pitta.

* for Amazon refuseniks the book is also available from other sources:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/bad-cook/id580194993?mt=11

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Cook-ebook/dp/B00ALKTWYY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363857002&sr=8-1&keywords=esther+walker+bad+cook

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Esther_Walker_Bad_Cook?id=wGTySqj1u-wC&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImJvb2std0dUeVNxajF1LXdDIl0.

THANK you if you bought it. You don’t have to read it, I promise I won’t corner you and ask you what you thought next time I see you.