Pavlova. New Zealand’s national dessert.
When Diana visited her aunt in New Zealand back in 1938, she enjoyed the trendiest new dessert on the scene: the pavlova. It was dreamt up in honour of the legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who’d wowed New Zealand crowds on her tour — she brought along a 50-strong dance troupe and a 22-piece orchestra and somehow managed to perform an exhausting 38 shows in just 39 days! No wonder she left such a mark that someone whipped up a whole new dessert for her.
These days, the pavlova is New Zealand’s national dessert — although, to be fair, the Aussies claim it too (typical!).
My mum, whose wartime service inspired Wings Unseen, was famous for her pavlovas. She was the undisputed Pavlova Queen — whenever there was a “men bring a bottle, ladies a plate” do, everyone begged her to bring a pav. Of course, transporting the notoriously delicate pavlova is a nail-biting mission. Every car trip ended in Mum shrieking “mind the pavlova!” at Dad every time he so much as tapped the brakes.
Anyway, here’s her tried-and-true recipe for the perfect pav, straight from the iconic NZ Edmonds Cookbook — with a few of Mum’s secret tweaks thrown in for good measure.
New Zealand Pavlova
6 egg whites
2 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon cornflour (cornstarch)
- Preheat oven to 110 deg C (230 F) – not fan bake.
- Line an oven tray with baking paper. Grease a circle in the
middle the size of a small plate. - Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Continue beating while adding the sugar ¼ cup at a time. The
mixture should get glossier and thicker with each addition and
this should take at least 10 minutes. - Beat in the vanilla, vinegar and cornflour.
- Spoon mixture onto the prepared tray into a dinner plate sized
mound with a smooth top surface. - Bake for approximately 1 ½ hours. Turn the oven off and leave the
pavlova for at least an hour before removing from the oven. - When cool, top with whipped cream and fruit.
