Shamrock Pavlova
This is a very simple green dessert. A green meringue base is baked and allowed dry out completely. The hardest part is piping the meringue into a shamrock. I’m not sure if I succeeded with this part. But I think a messily shaped shamrock works quite well for St Patrick’s Day somehow.
The dry meringue base is filled with yoghurt that is whipped up with cream sweetened with syrup from a tin of peaches, cinnamon and sugar, and topped with the peach slices.
Simmering the syrup from the tinned peaches with sugar and a cinnamon stick results in a lovely sauce that goes well with ice-cream too.
Is food is an important part of St Patrick’s Day celebrations? No. But sure it won’t go astray either.
Shamrock Pavlova
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs, separated, whites only needed
- 175g caster sugar, plus 2 tbsp for syrup
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1/4 tsp green food colouring
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional
- 1 tin peach slices in syrup
- 250ml fresh cream, at least 30% fat
- ¼ cup 0% Greek yoghurt
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
- First draw the outline of shamrock on a sheet of baking paper with a pencil - as a guide for piping the meringue. Line a large baking sheet with the baking paper and turn on the oven to 140° C.
- Next, make the meringue. Using a stand mixer to make meringue seems to work best. But an electric whisk will work too. Make sure that the bowl and whisks have just been washed and dried so that they are completely grease free. Whip the egg whites on a medium speed until they form soft peaks and then slowly add the 175g of sugar, while continuously whisking at maximum speed. Whisk until the egg whites are stiff and glossy. Then quickly whisk in the vinegar and green food colouring - and vanilla extract, if using. Finally gently whisk in the cornflour.
- Fill a piping bag with the green meringue, and do your best to pipe over the shamrock guide you’ve drawn on the baking paper. Pipe a higher layer of meringue on the outer part of the shamrock, so that there will be a bit of the dip fro the filling.
- Place the baking sheet with the meringue shamrock in the middle of the oven and bake at 140° C for 1 hour. Then turn off the oven, open the door a crack - just an inch or two - and leave the meringue in the oven to cool completely within the cooling oven. This will take an hour or so. You could leave it longer, but it is important to let it cool completely as this will dry it out so that it can hold the creamy filling for as long as needed.
- Strain the syrup from the tin of peaches into a small saucepan with a cinnamon stick. Turn the heat on to moderate and stir in two tablespoons of caster sugar. Gently bring to the boil, stirring every so often. Let the sugar dissolve completely and the syrup thicken a little. Then remove the saucepan from the heat and let the syrup cool with the cinnamon stick for 15 minutes or until it’s just a little warm rather than hot.
- Pour the cream into a bowl and add in the yoghurt. Whip until softly thickened and well-combined. Whisk in ¾ of the syrup. If you would like it to taste sweeter, remember that it is going to top meringue which is purely sweet. But if you still want it sweeter whip in another ½ tablespoon of caster sugar into the whipped yoghurt-cream. Spoon the mixture over the dried-out meringue shamrock. Then arrange the peach slices over the whipped yoghurt-cream. Finally spoon over the remaining syrup over the peach slices. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Hope you enjoy!
