- Preparation time
- 60 mins
- Cooking time
- 180 mins
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 10 people
- Meal course
- Dessert
- Posted by
- Posted on
- December 1, 2015
This is a recipe I have developed for a Fair dinkum Aussie style pavlova that has a marshmallowy middle, as the Aqua faba pavlovas tend to be hollow inside, but for a bit of wet chewy stuff, and it just wasn’t good enough.
Being an Aussie myself, I wanted something more like the real thing…
This is jolly good and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed if you try it!
This Pavlova has a crisp outer shell and a nice soft deep marshmallowy middle.
It makes a HUGE pavlova- this is definately big enough for a party or xmas and will serve probably 16-20 people .
*** For this recipe you need TWO THINGS YOU MAY NOT HAVE IN YOUR HOME ,without which you cannot make this, and those are – Gellan gum High acyl LT100 (this is a necessity, you will most likely need to order online!!!), and a candy thermometre!
I know people *don’t like* having to buy new things they haven’t tried before, but believe me, it opens up a new world to have new ingredients available to you, and it is worth purchasing!
As some people have had trouble trying to find gellan gum themselves I will attach a few links as a starting point for you :
USA: http://www.modernistpantry.com/gellan.html
UK : https://www.creamsupplies.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=7324
WORLDWIDE: cream supplies above posts worldwide, and the postage is cheap (ie to Australia is was only £8 ish for a tub!)…so use the drop down menu in shopping basket for the shipping charge to your country!
In a google search for Australia i found companies trying to charge £130.00 for what only would cost us £9.99 in the UK, so its well worth buying from elsewhere to get a cheaper product if the postage is also reasonable!
This recipe is a product of much experimenting- you can read the previous attempts and outcomes in the group posts I have made in the facebook group Vegan Meringues – hits and misses… https://www.facebook.com/groups/VeganMeringue/
I have previously tried using Agar agar, which still made a nice tasting pav with a middle, but it was just not quite right and the agar agar couldn’t stand up to the prolonged baking.
If you are desperate and don’t have Gellan gum, then give agar agar a goo, using the same technique but subbing 2 tsp agar instead of the gellan gum.It is still tasty, but the texture is far inferior (but still worth eating.)
I have also tried Konjac gum with is tolerant of higher heats but very dense and not worth the effort…
The gellan gum was the right choice for the desired outcome.
Please note, Gellan gum comes in TWO TYPES : high acyl and low acyl.
The high acyl makes a more strong, elastic gel and is heat tolerant and the low acyl gel makes a gel that has no stretch and is brittle.It is the HIGH ACYL gel I have used here….
Had I also bought the low acyl, I would have experimented with that too, or a blend of both,to see the difference, but will have to wait until we get paid and try that next month!
If anyone else has it available and wants to give it a go, please let us know how it comes out!
Right, so lets get to the recipe..it sounds convoluted, but once you have done it a few times it’s a doddle and just a fairly simple process to go through the motions, and well worth the effort!
The reason that this recipe calls for a few steps, rather than just making one mix, and forming and baking it is that meringue mix forms a nice crust, but the middle is fairly hollow and what softness there is inside is a bit wet and chewy, so it doesn’t replicate a proper Pavlova to just us AF meringue..An egg Pavlova has the ability to also set with heat but Aquafaba doesn’t, so my thinking was that there needed to be something that would ‘set’ the inside to replicate a regular pavlova, but if you used it throughout the whole mix,the outside wouldn’t dry out as it should, but would be rubbery, so it needed to have a middle that had the setting agent, with an outside that didn’t- hence this 3 step process.
Please also come and join our new FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/Plantified/ and post some of your favourite recipes, ask some questions, show off a dish you’ve cooked or just have a chat!
I want to show people how easy it is, how much fun you can have and what good food you can eat when you PLANTIFY your food!
My Plantified Mousses Recipe book is on it’s way to being finished, and you will receive an email letting you know when your FREE copy of the E-book is ready to download!
If you would like a FREE COPY OF THE RECIPE E-BOOK, and haven’t yet signed up to Plantified, please sign up here: http://plantified.com/register/ and you will receive your FREE recipe book once it is released.
(The only information that is required to register is a Email address, and a Username of your choice. If you do not receive the confirmation email after signup, please check your junk mail box. Any problems, please contact us.)
Mango and Passionfruit Mousse Joconde Entremet, as seen in the Free Mousse E-book for members of Plantified.
Enjoy
x
Katrina
Recipe:
Meringue Base
½ cup AF
½ tsp xanthum gum
1 cup caster sugar
vanilla
Marshmallow Middle
Sugar syrup ingredients:
1 ½ cups caster sugar
1 tsp Gellan gum (high acyl gt100) slightly rounded (not flat)
80 ml glucose syrup
½ cup water
For the mixer bowl: (you will add the sugar syrup to this)
¾ cup aqua faba
½ teaspoon xanthum gum
vanilla extract
Meringue outer shell topping:
¾ cup AF
½ tsp xanthum gum
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
vanilla extract
- First step Meringue base: Mix ½ cup of AF (i used Butter Bean, as i can’t taste any bean flavour at all and find it preferable to chickpea, but feel free to use your preference!) with the ½ tsp xanthum gum until it forms stiff peaks.
- Add 3/4 cup caster sugar, beating in between additions,until the sugar is all added and the meringue is smooth and has no graininess to it.
- Then beat in the vanilla. I don’t measure, but add it to taste..i would assume approx 1-2 tsp vanilla is sufficient.
- Cover a large flat baking sheet with non-stick parchment paper and turn your meringue onto the sheet, and spread into a round, slightly bigger than your springform pan.
- Place in the oven at 100c (NO HOTTER!) and bake .
- While that is baking make up the marshmallow centre. Using an approx 25cm springform pan place some parchment paper on the bottom. You’ll be juggling two processes at once here-, whipping the Aquafaba up and making the sugar syrup.
- Put 3/4 cup AF in the mixer bowl with ½ tsp xanthum gum and whip to stiff peaks whilst the sugar syrup is cooking.
- Sugar syrup: Add 1 ½ cups of caster sugar to a DRY saucepan.
- Measure out the 1 tsp Gellan gum. Mine was not a flat teaspoon or a heaped teaspoon but slightly rounded. Gellan gum is strong, and you don’t want to be heavy handed or the centre will become too elastic, and thats not what we want! Gellan gum also swells once liquid hits it, so add the gellan gum to the top of the dry sugar mound and with a whisk blend the dry ingredients together properly so that it won’t clump when the liquid is added.
- Add 80 ml glucose syrup. (glucose syrup is very thick and not overly sweet. if you don’t have access to glucose syrup you could make some invert syrup and try with that. Corn syrup is a possibility, but please be aware i have not tried the other syrups yet, so i can’t vouch for those at this point)
- Then add the ½ cup water and stir briskly. It will quickly thicken as the Gellan gum swells.
- Turn on the heat and continue stirring. You need to bring it gradually up to 250f on a candy thermometre whilst stirring from time to time to dissolve all the gel and incorportate it, and so the syrup doesn’t burn.
- Once it reaches 250f, turn off the heat and give it a quick whisk to deflate it and cool it slightly, then, while mixer is still running, gradually pour in the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream until it is all incorporated… The mixture will increase in size and still be quite warm ,so keep the mixer running as it fluffs up further and cools a little.
- Add some vanilla extract at this stage, mix it in, then turn off mixer.
- Take your springform pan with the parchment paper you prepared earlier. Turn out the mix, and spread it evenly across the springform pan, then put in fridge to set.
- At this point, its a good chance to lick the bowl and have a coffee!
- By the time the Meringue base looks done in the oven,(approx 1 hour) the Marshmallow middle will be set. What you want to look for to determine if the base is cooked enough is it forming cracks in the top and if the edges lift from the parchment paper if you try to peel it back.Take the base out of oven and allow to cool slightly. I make a habit of slightly flattening the base volume with my hand whilst its still a little warm, as it will have puffed up a bit in the oven.
- Remove the Marshmallow middle from the fridge, run a knife around the sides and release the springform pan, then invert the middle onto the base….(try not to miss! :) ) (I suppose it would make more sense to palce the base on top of the middle and then invert them, but wahtever works for you!)Then trim off any excess meringue,leaving an inch spare, if you made the base a little too big (don’t worry, you can snack on those bits whilst you make the meringue topping!
- Meringue topping: Place ¾ cup Aquafaba into the mixer bowl with ½ tsp xanthum gum and turn on. Whip to stiff peaks.
- Then gradually add the 1 ½ cups of sugar until all is incorporated, then add vanilla.
- Once the meringue is ready, take your naked pavlova and cover it with the meringue topping, starting with a nice pillow on top, then take it down over the sides and spread it around with a spatula, as if you were icing a cake.
- Once that is done, its time to pop it in the oven at 100c NO HOTTER!!! If you don’t know where 100c is exactly on your oven then MAKE SURE YOU USE AN OVEN THERMOMETRE!!!! We are relying on not reaching the melting point of the stabilising gel in this recipe and guessing at it is not going to guarantee the right result- unless ofcourse you don’t have one to hand and want to bung it in and cross your fingers (but don’t come crying to me as i warned you! :) lol!)
- This pavlova will grow in size once in the oven, so make sure there is room on your oven sheet for expansion!
- I baked this one for approx 3 hours, then turned of the oven and left it overnight. Seeing as it has a stabilising gel in it, it needs to recool to restructure...if you cut it whilst warm, it will be soft inside, so don’t’ fiddle...Just go to bed and dream of that giant Pavlova that’s waiting for you in the morning!!! :)
- Serve with whipped coconut cream with a dash of vanilla and a little sugar whipped in and topped with an assortment of fruit!
- A good old Aussie Pavlova always has Kiwi, strawberries, and lashings of passionfruit!~ passionfruit is the magic ingredient! (not mentioning the non-vegan peppermint crisp pavs from the old days!) However, there are millions of combinations ,and the sky is the limit with decorating a pavlova and i CAN’T WAIT to see some amazing pavlovas you guys have whipped up at home using this recipe!!!! Enjoy!!!
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