Vegan Pavlova

I well remember the episode on the Great British Baking Show. It was vegan week. Now I for one cannot imagine baking without eggs and butter, but that is me. Back to vegan week – they were to make a meringue without eggs. WHAT?! How in the devil do you make meringue without eggs? Apparently you do it with chickpea juice – aquafaba. And so it is for the next challenge in The Great British Bake Off Bakealong. We were charged with making a Vegan Pavlova. If you do not know what a pavlova is – it is a dessert with a meringue base, a creamy filling and fruit. It was created in honor of the great ballerina, Anna Pavlova.

The recipe for the base meringue is taken from Little House Big Alaska. Laura adapted it from Prue Leith.

I personally would like to know who looked at chick pea juice and thought, “let’s whip the devil out of that and see what happens.”

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Whatever. It works. I am seriously amazed at how well it works. So people, save your chick pea juice.

Table of Contents

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with a recipe for vanilla pudding and a link to a vegan coconut filling

Makes one large Pavlova or 8 personal sized Pavlovas

1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup aquafaba minus 1 TBSP, water from cooked beans (from two cans)
1 1/3 cup Sugar
2 tsp vanilla OR seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean
1 tsp corn starch

Rich Vanilla Pudding

³?₄cup sugar
¹?₄cup cornstarch
₁cup milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
¹?₂tsp salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 TBS butter
1 tsp vanilla (I used a scraped vanilla bean)

Assorted Fruits (4 cups) – of course use whatever is on hand, fresh, your favorite

oranges
kiwi fruit
pineapple (canned or fresh)
pomegranate

preheat oven to 250?

line two baking sheets with parchment paper, draw 4-inch circles (4), flip over so the pencil mark is on the bottom, and set aside
put the cream of tarter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attached
add the aquafaba and run the stand mixer on medium until the mixture gets foamy

turn the mixer on high and let run until the mixture holds soft peaks 8-10 minutes
with the mixer running add the sugar Tablespoon by Tablespoon until it’s gone and the meringue is glossy
add the vanilla and beat for 30 seconds
sprinkle the corn starch over the meringue and whip another 30 seconds

fill a large piping bag fitted with a large tip with meringue, and fill in the circles on the parchment. If desired, add a decorative tip to a second bag, fill it and pipe stars, shells or your choice of edge on the circles
repeat with the remaining meringue
bake for 75 minutes in the pre-heated oven, leave the door shut and do not open the oven

after 75 minutes, turn off the oven, open the door to let out the heat and let the meringues cool
once cooled you can peel off the paper and place on a cooling rack to the let the bottom dry
pavlovas are best served fresh, so assemble directly before serving

Make the Pudding

While the meringues are baking, make the pudding.
Add sugar, cornstarch, milk and salt to a heatproof bowl. Set over simmering water.
When mixture begins to thicken, add part of mixture to egg yolks to temper; mix well, then pour egg mixture back into mixture in double boiler.
Cook until mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Add butter and vanilla.
Pour through a sieve into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap set directly on top of pudding to cool.

Build the Pavlova

Place one disc on a plate
Add about half a cup of pudding (or whatever filling you choose) and spread around center of disc. Top with chopped fruit.
Top with second disc, repeat with pudding and fruit

You can also just serve one disc topped with filling and fruit per person if you choose. It’s a versatile dessert. Instead of pudding you can put any of the following in the center:

whipped cream
ice cream
sweetened yogurt
whipped soft tofu with honey

You get the idea. The vegan meringue is only a base from which to build your pavlova.

How Was the Vegan Pavlova?

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. Meringue is not my favorite but this one tasted pretty good. It was less sweet than an egg white meringue. The hubby was not home when I made this recipe and I did not want great quantities of leftover pavlova so I made small vegan meringue cookies with some of the leftover whipped aquafaba.

I baked them the same as the pavlova rounds and found they stored beautifully in airtight containers. I think they will be lovely if I try them again with some color using natural dyes. They taste rather like eating sweet air.