Chocolate Pavlova

I had an enormous craving to bake this week, and so decided to make a pavlova. I've always wanted to try making one of those even though I've never been big on the whole meringue thing - the melt-in-your-mouth texture just fascinates me. Personally, I like my food more solid, but I never bake with the purpose of satisfying my taste buds anyway. I bake simply to fulfil my craving to bake and then I just give all the stuff away [I never really eat what I bake].

Okay, enough with all the rambling. I used Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova recipe, except I didn't have raspberries and Singapore doesn't bring in nice raspberries anyway, so I used almond flakes instead.

Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova (with alterations for my own convenience)

For Pavlova:

300g Castor Sugar
6 Egg Whites
2 TBSP Cocoa Powder
600g Best Dark Chocolate finely chopped

For Topping (obviously changed):
As Many Almond Flakes as You Like
Grated Best Dark Chocolate
600g Pure Cream [whipped]

Preheat oven to 180C
I use VALRHONA chocolate. It can be bought from Sun Lik - S$23.50 for 1kg. It's the best dark chocolate you can find - but it really depends on what you like. I'm a dark chocolate person, and if you're not, you're better off substituting it with more cocoa powder. So, simply chop it up - and as you can see I've not done a good job of it, but what do you know, I ended up with a nice piece of 600g [the original recipe calls for 500g] so I used it.

On to the Pavlova. Basically this works like a meringue, beat the egg whites till it becomes all fluffy and nice. And then add the sugar and beat some more until it becomes shiny and stiff.

Then, add the finely chopped chocolate and cocoa powder to it. I admit I got a little perfectionist about chopping up the chocolate, and frankly it doesn't have to be so powdery because people have teeth.

So I added that lot in, and I got a nice chocolatey colour. I just love how meringues look. Imagine, just from egg whites we get wonderful cloud-like things.

After it's all nice and mixed up, you just pour it onto the baking sheet into a circular shape. It should be all gloppy and creamy, like giant pancake batter.

Shove it into the oven and immediately turn down the temp from 180C to 150C. This does something to it, I think - makes it crispy on the outside while making sure the inside stays gooey and marshmellow-like. Leave it to bake for 1hr-1hr 15 mins. Mine was done within an hour. And then you'll get this poufy cracked thing which will flatten upon cooling.

When completely cooled, whip the cream and spread it on top of the pavlova. Then sprinkle the almond flakes over it and finally, if you like, grate the dark chocolate on top of it. Voila! It's done. Looks like a giant chocolate pizza. Funny. I cut a slice for my brother just to see how the inside looked before serving it to the churchies - it's all nice and sticky chewy chocolate texture inside with a light meringue crust. In my opinion, the photos really don't do it justice and I think I really do need to upgrade my camera from a 2meg to at least a 4meg, no?