» Pavlova

Pavlova

Posted by Tara on Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Hope recently participated in our home school group’s International Fair. Each student gets to select a country to study and puts together a visual presentation of the chosen country. Students get to dress up accordingly and also have prepare some authentic food to share from their featured country. Since Hope’s cousin recently moved to Australia to serve as a missionary, Hope picked the Down Under this year.

Hope and I researched several recipes together. We finally decided on the Australian desert called Pavlova. Pavlova is a layered desert with meringue, custard, cream, fresh fruit, and roasted macadamia nuts. We were pleased with the taste of this desert and several of our visiting “families” at the fair requested the recipe.

When the Russian danseuse Pavlova visited Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s, she enthralled her audiences with the grace and style of her dancing. At the time of her visits and for the next decade, cooks and chefs in both countries sought to honor her and the occasions of her visits with confections they created to capture her light and airy spirit and appearance. These ranged from trifle-like, gelatin-based creations to cakes and meringue-based confections in various forms. Some of these confections to honor her were called Pavlovas.

The original recipe called for home baked meringue and custard made “from scratch”, but we improvised and came up with a quick alternative.

You will need:

1 5oz tub of MISS MERINGUE vanilla meringues (We got ours at Kroger). There are about 65 per tub.
2 large packages INSTANT JELL-O vanilla pudding
6 cups milk
1 pint real whipping cream
½ cup powdered sugar
2 kiwi fruits – diced fine
1 box fresh strawberries – diced fine (Other favorite Aussie fruits are bananas, raspberries, and coconuts
Roasted macadamia nuts chopped fine

In large bowl, combine the JELL-O vanilla instant pudding with the 6 cups of milk. Mix according to package directions. Place in refrigerator while preparing cream.

In deep medium bowl, add the pint of whipping cream. Beat on high until soft peaks begin to form. Continue beating while adding the powdered sugar. Refrigerate until ready to assemble desert.

In a medium bowl, place diced fruit. Refrigerate until ready to assemble desert.

I assembled the desert right before serving. I assumed the meringues would get soggy if this desert was assembled way ahead of serving time, but hey, some folks may prefer soggy meringue. What’s neat about this desert is that you may add the layers to a trifle dish or even a 9×13 dish.