Tis the season for entertaining….

This chocolate pav is a winner, add some Spiced Cranberry Flavour Pearls for a little extra glamour and delicious Christmas cheer

The fabulous thing about serving pav to your friends and family apart from it being delicious is you can bake your pav days in advance and store in an airtight container in a cool area. One less thing to worry about!

Chocolate Pavlova

Ingredients

• 5 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups castor sugar
• 3 tbs Dutch cocoa powder
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• few drops vanilla

To Serve

• 300 ml thickened cream – whipped  (or double cream)
• 1 punnet strawberries – sliced
• 50 g jar of Spiced Cranberry 

Method

You will need a tray, lined with baking paper. Trace a circle around a plate or cake tin onto the paper.

• Whisk the egg whites until they’re holding firm peaks but are not stiff. Gradually add in the sugar, whilst still beating, until you’ve got a bowl full of thick glossy meringue. Seive in the cocoa powder, a few drops of vanilla and the balsamic vinegar on top and fold in to combine.
• Preheat the oven to 120ºC.  (maybe even as low as 100ºC if you have a fan forced oven)
  
•   Spoon the meringue onto the circle, and spread and smooth to fill. (a piping bag does the trick too) .
•   Put into the oven and bake until firm to the touch. It could take up to a couple of hours. Turn the oven off and leave to cool.
  
• When its time to assemble, dollop some cream into the centre, and top with some sliced strawberries and a generous scattering of Spiced Cranberry Flavour Pearls

This one is an easy dessert to master. Lucky too….it’s so delicious you will get plenty of requests…’just bring that lovely chocolate pav that we had at your place’….you know how it goes!

Until next time

The Peninsula Larder Team