Black Cherry Pavlova

This is the second of my Valentine's Day meringue bakes as part of the Sugar and Crumbs challenge. Once again I used a flavoured icing sugar, this time, Black Cherry. I love cherries. So I thought this would be an easy one to use.
It was very interesting as I didn't love the smell of it, but the beauty of these sugars is the subtle flavours they bring. I added it directly into the meringue to replace the caster sugar and it worked beautifully. The pavlova was topped with whipped cream, fresh cherries, a dark chocolate drizzle and some orange zest. The flavours all worked so nicely together; I did consider making a cherry syrup, but ran out of time.



Whilst my photos aren't great, I hope you can see the heart shape I made my pavlova into. I loved it! The pavlova itself was perfect, crisp on the outside and marshmallowy on the inside.  The fresh cherries complimented the flavoured sugars so well and I would always use fresh with it.


Black Cherry Pavlova
(Pavlova recipe from Raspberri Cupcakes, serves 8)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggwhites, at room temperature
• A pinch of salt
• 240g (about 1 & 1/3 cups) flavoured icing sugar (or caster sugar if making regular pavlova)
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only
• For dusting: melted butter or vegetable oil + extra cornflour
• 300ml double cream
• 100g dark chocolate
• zest of half an orange
• cherries to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 100°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper, brush with butter/oil and dust with cornflour.
2. Whisk eggwhites and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer until soft peaks form. With motor running, add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whisking until sugar dissolves (5-10 minutes, you can check it by pinching a small amount of mixture between your fingers). 
3. Fold in cornflour, vinegar and vanilla seeds, then pile mixture into a 20cm-diameter circle (or heart shape) on oven tray, gently smoothing top and making a slight indentation. 
4. Bake in centre of oven until crisp but not coloured (1-1¼ hours). Turn off oven and leave to cool completely with door ajar.
5. Meringue will keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Topping:

1. Whip the cream, adding in a few drops of vanilla essence (optional).
2. Spread it over the pavlova.
3. Melt the dark chocolate in 30 second increments in the microwave until smooth. Drizzle over the cream. Add cherries to the top - whole and halved.
4. Top with orange zest.

This is best assembled just before serving.

Pink Lemonade Macarons

"Love is in the Air!" 
I'm really excited to be taking part in a product and blog challenge using Sugar and Crumb's flavoured icing sugars. This one is a Valentine's and meringue theme. I have actually used these products before and I knew they worked well with macarons, as a way of adding flavour to the shell, rather than the filling.

For these macarons, I used the Pink Lemonade icing sugar and a dark chocolate ganache filling. It was a lovely light and fairly subtle flavour. I took them into my work for Friday treats - I'm a teacher by day, and let's face it, teachers love treats, so I knew they would be well received.

I asked for honest opinions on them. These were some of the comments:

"I love getting the flavour in the first mouthful"

"It's subtle, but I like it"

"It almost pops in your mouth!"

"I think a lighter buttercream filling would enhance the favour even more"

"I love it with the chocolate ganache filling, the flavours compliment each other"

 

 

Pink Lemonade Macarons

 

If you are new to macarons, Brave Tart has a lot of good advice on how to make them. I did a lot of reading before I started, and I have made a lot of batches to perfect them. I also did a short course one day to be taught in a practical way. But reading lots of blogs, really does help.

 

Ingredients:

 

100 grams ground almonds (I actually use about 110g to then allow for large bits that can't be sieved)

100-110g egg whites (about 3 egg whites)

185g icing (powdered) sugar

4 tablespoons caster sugar

Ganache:
200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
150mls double cream

 Method:

 Preheat the oven to 140° C.

1. Push the ground almond through a sieve to get rid of any large pieces or lumps.
2. Mix the flavoured icing sugar together with the ground almonds in a food processor. I do this twice - sieve, food processor, sieve, food processor.
3. In a large bowl, whip the egg whites with a hand- or stand mixer. As the egg whites start foaming, add the sugar one tablespoon at a time and continue whipping until the mixture is glossy and stiff - this takes about 9 mins. Add any colour at this stage and mix for a further minute. You should be able to hold the bowl upside down without the meringue sliding out.
4. Fold the dry mix carefully and slowly into the meringue, use a spatula. Don't over mix! You want the mixture to fall off the spatula like lava.
5. Fill your piping bag and pipe the macarons onto a baking sheet. Carefully tap the baking sheet on a hard surface such as a table to get all the air bubbles out.  Add the heart decorations to the top of each macaron. Let them set for 60 minutes to form a dry skin.
6. Bake for about 14-16 minutes. Let cool completely, then fill with piped chocolate ganache and sandwich them together.
7. Place in an airtight container in the fridge for 24 hours to let the flavours develop.

Ganache:

1. Finely chop the chocolate.
2. Heat the double cream in a small saucepan on a low to medium heat until it begins to bubble and steam. You want it to be hot enough to melt the chocolate easily.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, stir slightly and allow to sit for a few minutes.
4. Whisk the chocolate and cream mixture until it becomes smooth and silky. If there are still lumps of chocolate you can place the bowl over a saucepan is simmering water to reheat and melt further.
5. Pour the melted mixture into a flat pan and place in the fridge to chill. Cover with cling film to avoid a skin forming. It is ready to pipe into the macarons when it has set. If it is too hard, leave on your bench for a few minutes, but remember, just by piping it, it will warm up in your hands anyway.

 

 

You can get these icing sugars direct through the Sugar and Crumbs shop, or I have also bought them through Iced Jems.  There are a number of retailers in Australia who are stocking them now too (even one in Canberra!). Click here to search for your local stockist.

 

I'd love to know your thoughts.....

 

Kris