Pavlova hails from New Zealand, the Aussies just copied it!

Last weekend I baked my very first Pavlova. I have always greatly enjoyed this fabulous and very elegant dessert, but somehow never made one from scratch. Until I found this foolproof recipe. It takes time and should be prepared the night before so you can leave it in the oven until totally cooled down and out it comes prefect: crunchy on the outside, but deliciously chewy at the center. I used golden caster sugar for the meringue so there is a nice contrast between the white wipped cream and the light brown meringe. I topped my Pavlova with freshly picked strawberries from my kitchen garden. Can't wait for the raspberries to ripen now, the perfect excuse to have another Pavlova.
By the way: Pavlovas don't hail from Australia as the recipe states, but from New Zealand. A New Zealand chef in a hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, created the dish when Anna Pavlova visited there in 1926 to honor the great Russian ballerina.

A Dessert straight from the Heart

Confession: I love to browse through kitchen gadget catalogues. There is something to all those pots and pans, cupcake and shortbread moulds, handmixers and stick blenders, mini choppers, chicken roasters, herb mills, garlic presses, pasta machines and potato ricers that I find deeply interesting, regretting only that I really, really don't need to buy anything anymore because my kitchen is far too well equipped already. But then, once in while there is something I just need to have:

Coeur à la Crème Mould

I probably wouldn't even have known what to use these for, had the very clever people at Lakeland not put the recipe right next to the pics of these delightful little heart moulds. This was years ago but Coeurs à la Crème are still one of my favorite desserts - light and elegant and, best of all, to be prepared one day in advance so there is no last minute stress involved.

For 8 Cream Hearts you will need:

8 heart moulds, 8 muslin squares

300 ml yoghurt

150 castor sugar

300 ml cream

2 eggs

Separate the eggs. Mix the yoghurt, the egg yolks and all but 2 tbsp sugar together. In another bowl whip the cream until stiff, then combine with the yoghurt mixture. In yet another bowl (yes, there is a bit of washing up involved...) whip the egg whites until stiff, add the 2 tbsp sugar and whip some more. Carefully fold the egg whites into the yoghurt/cream mixture.

Dampen the muslin squares and line the coeur à la crème moulds, then divide mixture between the moulds, filling them generously (they will loose moisture and set overnight). Put all moulds in a deep enough dish that will hold the liquid that will drain from the coeurs. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Hearts set for draining

To serve, turn out the hearts and decorate with a fruit coulis of your choice - here I choose papaya.

Monday evening my friend Thérèse invited us for dinner and I offered to bring dessert. So these real pretty plates are hers (...jealous sigh....)