Once again, I have broken up with New York. It's an on-off relationship, and my love affair with the City tends to grind to a halt by the beginning of July. Now that I am away from it all, I do get occasional intense longings for the rumble of the elevated tracks, for sleepy afternoons lounging on the grass in Sunset Park (the Chapultepec of New York), for the quiet calm of a Hasidic shabbos, for feasts of baklava and meze in Bay Ridge, and for drinks at the corner of Havemeyer and Grand followed by a walk across the Williamsburg Bridge in the velvety darkness. Nevertheless, for all the potential delights of summer in the City, swapping the cloying humidity, the annoying drone of air conditioners and sidewalks festering with garbage for the cool, endless, pastel-hued Nordic nights is a no-brainer.
Everyone who ventures to Finland in July will encounter strawberries. Mounds of them, and hulking layer cakes of whipped cream and strawberries. Strawberries for breakfast, strawberries in salads, strawberries with the afternoon coffee, strawberries as a midnight snack. Friends who drop in for a surprise visit will bring you a punnet of strawberries, and you will surprise them in return with a strawberry dessert. For years and years my lowest-effort version has been a cup of hulled and halved strawberries, marinated in the fridge with half a tablespoon of high-quality aceto balsamico and a tablespoon of sugar.
My co-worker's father has a strawberry farm near Lohja, and today marks the end of their picking season. Strawberries from Suonenjoki, the inland town famous for them, will still be plentiful for a few weeks, but I really should get started on my strawberry recipes before it is too late.
Next month I am travelling to Australia for a brief work-related thing. The logistics have been unusually complicated, as there are five people involved and each of them has different scheduling requirements. This probably explains why I have baked a pavlova (probably the most famous culinary invention from down under) for three separate sets of guests this week.
The pavlova recipe has been with me for at least a decade. It is always an enormous hit and the perfect party dish. In a frenzy of a few minutes your guests will devour every last crumb, and afterwards come the thank-you notes, e-mails and text messages that wax poetic about your choice of dessert. It is imperative that you make the meringue yourself, the morning or the night before. You can bake several at once, although I have never been able to keep them around for longer than a few days. In theory you could go to a shop and buy ready-made meringues. Unfortunately they will have the texture and taste of drywall. This is because a pavlova does not travel well: a homemade meringue is so fragile, and yet so deliciously chewy inside, that it barely survives the trip from the oven to the table.
Pavlova is a tremendously simple affair. Once you have amazed yourself by performing true kitchen magic and producing a perfect meringue, you just pile lots of whipped cream and fresh fruit on top. My favourites are simple and perennial, either pomegranate seeds or a few passion fruits, and both make a miraculously pretty dish. Fresh raspberries would also work beautifully, but right now strawberries are the one and only correct answer.
Recipe card
The Strawberry Pavlova
- 6-8, with generous second helpings
- Oven 150 °C (300 °F), then 140 °C (275 °F)
- Baking 10 min + 1 hour (two smaller: 10 min + 30 min)
- Cooling in the switched-off oven
You will need
Meringue
| 4 | egg whites |
| 230 g (270 ml, or 1 heaped cup) | sugar |
| 1 tsp | cornflour (cornstarch) |
| 1 tsp | white wine vinegar |
| 1/2 tsp | vanilla sugar |
Topping
| 200 ml (3/4 cup) | whipping cream (heavy cream) |
| 4 or 5 passion fruits, 1-2 pomegranates, or fresh strawberries |
Method
- If at all possible, bake the pavlova directly on the serving plate (you can line it with a circle of oiled baking parchment). You can also use an oven tray, but remember that moving the meringue around will crack it very easily.
- Beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff peaks form (a KitchenAid mixer is ideal for this).
- Add the vinegar and vanilla sugar and keep beating for 4 more minutes, or until thick and glossy. Lightly fold in the cornflour.
- Pile the mixture into one large or two smaller rounds, making a hollow in the centre for the filling. Note that the mixture will swell as it bakes.
- I have a gas oven, and I bake the meringue at 150 °C (300 °F) for ten minutes. Then I turn the oven down to 140 °C (275 °F) for a further hour if there is one enormous meringue. For two smaller ones, 30 more minutes is enough.
- Turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the oven until cool.
- Top with whipped cream and decorate with fresh fruit. Serve immediately.
Undercook rather than overcook. The meringue should stay brilliantly white (if it starts to colour, the oven is too hot), hard on the outside and meltingly soft inside.
12 comments
No oli jo aikakin 🙂 Tervetuloa Suomeen.
Thx Polkkis! Although I love Helsinki in the summer, I'm packing my stuff right now for a week of aimless driving around Eastern Finland. Juankoski, here I come!
Hei Anna,
Glad you're back. Do I understand the longing feeling for a place where you are not currently... Helsinki in July... Well, Juankoski is not bad either. Have a great time!
Hey! I discovered this blog few weeks ago and I was waiting for some new posts. Nice to read yout! I'm myself french woman living in Rovaniemi and also have my own blog which is mainly about food, finnish food!
Saluti Anna (and Antti)!
I'm so happy to see you blogging again. Finland is one of those countries that I would just love to visit. But now I must change my plans so that I visit in July. This way I can enjoy the strawberries.
Beautiful pavlova!
Hi Anna, I'm so glad you're back!!
Im glad you are back too, and glad you posted this recipe. It looks fantastic...
That looks great...and I'm sure it tastes great too 🙂 I have always been a little fearful of making meringue...
Hi Eszter, Ivonne, Zsofi & Rachael, I'm so happy you are stopping by - sorry we have been so negligent about posting lately. Both Antti and I have new jobs that keep us incredibly busy. On the other hand, returning to Finland means that I will be cooking more than ever - takeout isn't as great here as it is in Manhattan and restaurant options in Helsinki are pretty limited.
Joey, have no fear - meringues look really daunting, but they are super easy. The only trick to it is to keep the oven cool enough.
Charlotte, I recently found your blog too and it is wonderful: the pictures are simply mouth-watering, you have a fresh take on Finnish favorites, and I get to practice my (pretty non-existent) French. Keep up the good work!
Hei Anna,
when i was making my traineeship in Lappeearanta (LUT) i had the chance to see your nice Country , kind people and also tasted delicious strawberries.
you wrote baklava and meze as we write and say in Turkish. if you tried a meze recipe before it will be nice to read it from your blog .
it is my first time but promise i will visit often
Nice to read you again.
In this post you connect two places, Finland and Australia, that are materially distant and, in my imagination, diametrically opposed. I visit recently Sydney (but I didn't have the chance to taste a pavlova, neither there, nor in New Zealand). And I hope some day I'll visit your country, Nor just for checking if my imagination was wrong, 😀 but to enjoy strawberry season and much much more...
Best,
Marcela
A pavlova is an instant winner I think.. made a raspberry one for Valentine's and your comment about baking it on the serving plate is spot on... I had no baking paper to hand and messed about with tin foil which does not work well.
Sauce tip... raspberry and passion fruit... 100 grams of raspberries and two/three passion fruits.. in the blender and then through a siff.. lovely.