British plums are the best so make good use of them in the autumn and whip up this truly awesome pavlova.
Hairy Bikers: Plum Pavlova
Print ThisIngredients
- 5 egg whites
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 250g caster sugar
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- For the spiced plums
- 200ml red wine
- Juice of 1 orange
- 75g light brown sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- A few cardamom
- pods, lightly crushed
- A few allspice berries, lightly crushed
- 1 thin strip of
- orange zest
- 8 ripe plums, stoned and quartered
- To serve
- 100g dried cherries
- 100ml kirsch
- 300ml double or whipping cream
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- First make the meringue. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Draw a circle of about 23cm in diameter on a sheet of baking paper and place this on a baking tray.
- Beat the egg whites with a hand-held electric whisk, until soft peaks form. Mix the cinnamon with the sugar, then slowly add this to the egg whites. Add a tablespoon at a time to start with and then slightly more, beating in between each addition, until the meringue is stiff and glossy. Sprinkle over the vinegar and fold it in.
- Use a few blobs of the meringue to secure the baking paper to the baking tray, then pile the rest into the circle. Make a slight indentation in the middle and let the meringue form peaks around the side.
- Bake the meringue in the oven for about an hour and 15 min to an hour and a half. It should be crisp round the sides but with some give in the middle. Turn off the oven and leave the meringue in there to cool.
- Put the cherries in a small saucepan with the kirsch. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until soft and most of the kirsch has been absorbed.
- To make the spiced plums, put the wine, orange juice, sugar, spices and orange zest in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few min until syrupy. Add the plums and poach them in the liquid for a few min, or until soft but still holding their shape.
- Remove the plums from the liquid, peeling off the skins as you go. Strain the cooking liquid.
- Whip the cream and add the icing sugar and the cinnamon, then stir in a couple of tablespoons of the plum liquid and the cherries. Spoon the cream over the meringue base, top with the plums and drizzle over any remaining liquid.
