Pavlova quest part VI

Another Christmas, another pavlova... I really feel that I'm getting pretty close to nailing the perfect method for my mixer/oven now.  Armed with yet more info from Anneka Manning's how to make the perfect meringue, I hypothesised that I'm getting weeping mainly from OVER beating, plus a bit more cornflour should help to stabilise things even more. There was also an interesting note that the vinegar helps to acidify the mix, producing a more stable foam so it should be added at the beginning, especially for not so fresh eggs... I added it when I moved the mix to the stand mixer, when all the sugar was in, so I'm not sure whether it helped adding it earlier or not.

So here we go again:

• 190g egg whites, 310 g caster sugar
• whisk over double boiler until temperature of mix exceeds 60C (a little lower than my previous 70C, but apparently 60 is enough for pasteurisation)
• transfer to mixer and beat, slowly increasing speed to medium (speed 6) over the first five to six minutes. 
• I ended up beating for a total of 10 minutes, which was the same as previously BUT I didn't exceed speed 6. 
• I may have been imaginging it, but when finished the mixture had a finer texture than previously, which would align with the overbeating hypothesis. Mix was actually very stiff, with peaks not flopping over, which was a little stiffer than I would normally use.
• Note that even at the 10 minute mark, the bowl was still slightly warm to the touch, which goes against the standard advice to keep beating until the bowl is cool (room temp).
• Add cornflour, 1 tablespoon = 4 teaspoons (Australian measure!) or approximately 1 tspn per egg white (assume 1 large egg white ~40g). This is double what I would normally add for a pav this size.
• Add 1 tspn white wine vinegar (1 tspn per 4 egg whites) and a few drops of vanilla
• Preheated oven to 120C and turn down to 100C immediately on putting pav into oven
• Bake for 75 mins total (1:15)

I used the probe thermometer again, and it hit 80C after about 55 mins, and stayed there until the 1:15 mark. So I think I really do need the slightly higher oven temp of 100C (rather than 90C) to get the marshmallow part of the pav to cook fully.

And the result?

Pretty happy with this result. A bit of cracking as you can see but not too much marshmallow shrinkage. I probably could have cooked it 10-15 minutes less, but I was a bit concerned at the 55 minute mark that the outer shell didn't feel really dry. It was even a little soft and springy when I pushed on it. I probably could have turned down the oven for the last half hour just to dry out the shell without shrinking the marshmallow. 

The smallest bit of weeping in the middle of the ring. This pav may have cooked a little quicker becasue of its ring shape, rather than the usual circle, but I think the use of the probe thermometer takes the guesswork out as I now know that once the temp hits 80C, I just need another 20-30 minutes (max) to complete the drying out. Overall pretty good!!!

Pavlova quest part V

A long time between pavlova posts, but as I've changed techniques quite a lot in the last year or so, I thought I should make some notes!

The biggest change is to use the same initial technique as used in swiss buttercream to get the sugar dissolved in the egg white, that is, to use a double boiler to gently heat the egg whites and beat in the sugar by hand until the temperature reaches around 70 degrees Celsius. this is a sure fire way of making sure all the sugar is dissolved, meaning that the mix can be whisked at full speed. I havent done a comparison to really compare if this affects the final volume of the result, but it does give a beautifully stiff mix quite easily. Of course heating the mix has the advantage of basically pasteurising the eggs too! 

The rest of the recipe is unchanged, with the sugar to egg white ratio still being 1:1.65

I've had pretty good success with this technique, getting well risen pavlovas with none of the possible under cooking problems I had before (oozing syrup) but still some cracking.

Some sites prefer to use a long slow bake rather than an initial high heat, so that's what this trial is about. Previously I've always had the interior marshmallow part shrink, so there's a gap at the top of the pavlova, indicating that it was cooked for too long (water evaporates, shrinking the marshmallow). Temperatures higher than 100C are likely to make the pav crack, but the exterior doesn't brown. I'd really like to get a snowy white pav, so I'm going to try a long slow cook at 90C for around 2 hours.

I'm also going to use my probe thermometer - we're aiming for 80C in the middle. As per this site, I can always give it a quick hot blast again after the initial baking if I really want to brown the exterior.

So here's the latest trial notes:

• I used ~240g of egg whites to 390g of caster sugar
• After whisking egg whites and all of the sugar over a double boiler, beat on a stand mixer (max speed 8 after slowly increasing speed from 2 over the first 5 mins, for a total of 10 minutes (exactly)
• Add vinegar (1 tsp) and cornflour (1tsp/4 eggwhites) as normal
• Despite being a big pav (~6-7 extra large egg whites), it was about the same height as I would normally use, but a bit broader at ~23cm diameter
• Preheat oven to 90C. I've recently added an oven thermometer which confirms my oven temp is pretty much what it says on the dial, albeit with some hot spots
• Place probe thermometer in the pav. A bit tricky as the pav isnt really solid enough when raw to hold it above the sheet pan, but I sort of jerry rigged it
• Bake on 2nd lowest shelf (the pav is then in the middle of the oven) for approx 120 mins

And how did it turn out?

The pav as baked, with holes from probe thermometer

And voila!

Some notes:

• nice shape and pale colour, with a little cracking, but not too badly (better than previously)
• the marshmallow has shrunk away from the crisp crust quite a bit, indicating the pav was cooked for too long
• there is clear/yellowish syrup leaking from the base, which also suggests the pav may have been cooked too long (when the marshmallow shrinks, it squeezes out water)
• the temp never really got above 75-77C, and the egg whites should be above 80C to be fully cooked and stable. It reached this temp at about 60-70mins, and then never really got any higher. I suspect this might be because the foam is such a good insulator, its hard to make it rise without a higher oven temp

Next steps...

• try a marginally higher temp of 100C, but a shorter cook time to try to get the middle to come up to over 80C without resulting in later weeping

Pavlova quest part IV

Here we are again with another pavlova make.  This time for the Potter annual reuinion in Melbourne when patriarch Laurie joins us from the north.

As I think I'm finally narrowing down the parameters, part IV is not much changed from part III, but as part III still saw significant drying out of the interior, the aim this time was to try to refine my baking time.

So:

• 127g egg whites
• 210g caster sugar
• pinch salt

Beat till soft peaks form (speed 4) and then gradually add sugar (speed 6). Add vanilla, cornflour with last of sugar (4-5 mins total) and then beat another 5 mins on speed 10. Add white wine vinegar and beat in. The mix did not seem as stiff as previous efforts.

Place in preheated oven (130C) on low shelf (No. 4) and immediately turn down to 100C and bottom element only. Bake 70 mins. Just showing first signs of cracking when I turned the oven off but left the pav inside, door closed.

First impressions are that I haven't gotten the say amount of rise - so need more heat at the start of the bake. So next time either preheat a little hotter or wait 10 mins before turning down the oven. It's a bit hard to say given this mix didn't seem as stiff as usual.

Chook update

In 2016 we added 2 black Araucana bantams to our flock. At least they are both supposed to Araucanas, but only one lays green eggs and has the rose comb of the breed. The other lays white eggs and has a pointy comb, so she must be a mutt. The one with the pointy crown is (Queen) Elsa, and her sister is Anna (naturally)).

On Cup Day 2016 (1 November, or the first Tues in November, our first hatched chicken joined the flock. We got some fertile eggs so our broody Wyandotte Caramel and Anna could hatch them. Fortunately the one Red Ancona that made it turned out to be a girl. Her name is Bing Bunny chicken.

Pavlova quest part III

The quest continues! Here's the outcome of the Christmas 2016 bake, using the quantities and method described in part II, but tweaking the cook times.

134g egg whites
X1.65 = 220g caster sugar

Beat egg whites and pinch sugar to soft peaks
Add sugar gradually on speed 6
3-4 mins

Increase speed to 10 and beat 5-6 mins

Preheat oven to 130
Shelf = position 4 (second from bottom)
Turn down to 110 and set to bottom element only
After 45 mins turn down to 90
Bake 90 min

Pretty good, cracking minimal, but still large air gap at top so still baked too long
See photo, but this was taken after I pushed the top in to fill it with cream

Farewell Henny and Penny

Lost 2 of our Light Sussex friends this week. Not sure why :( but possibly egg-bound in Henny's case. 

Pavlova quest part II

The quest for the perfect pavlova continues. A visit from the in laws coupled with making ice cream resulted in 12 eggs whites going begging. The first attempt followed my previous protocol, but wary of warnings about overheating, I stopped just when I felt no grit in my meringue (i.e. All the sugar was dissolved, about 5-6 minutes beating). This resulted in stiff peaks and a meringue that held its uncooked shape well, but not as stiff as I would usually use. Baked on the second lowest rack, preheated to 180 and then turned down to 150 for 30 mins, followed by 120 for another 45.

And here's the baked result.....

Disappointing to say the least.

So of course I had to try again.  After much googling, I discovered this wonderful site:

http://www.decalt.com.au/gluten-free-recipes/45-gluten-free-recipes/gluten-free-desserts/316-gluten-free-pavlova-tips

Which is really what I have been looking for - a comparison of different techniques (the scientific method at work!). As it happened I was also concerned with exactly how much egg white there is in a "large egg"' so as to convert my bantam egg whites to "large" as used in most recipes.  Turns out it's about 58% of the egg weight! but of course what really matters is the ratio of egg white to sugar. And this great site discusses this at length, finally coming up with a ratio of 1:1.65.  This happens to be pretty much what Stephanie Alexander uses (1:1.8, assuming a standard "large egg" is about 60g, even though in the supermarket these are actually sold as "extra large".... You can see why my obsessive compulsiveness really appreciated someone else's thorough examination of this topic!)

So coupled with my own intuition that my previous meringue just wasn't stiff enough, this website, as well as a continuing niggling feeling my meringues were too brown, I have concluded my major problem (aside from the insufficient beating) was that my oven is just too hot (Ilve do promote how good their ovens are at retaining heat) and didn't respond quickly enough to turning the temp down.

So here's what I changed:

1. Weigh the egg whites - I had 110g from 6 bantam egg whites, so used about 180g caster sugar (I followed the Stephanie Alexander recipe for attempt 1 and used 6 whites to 250g sugar). Cornflour and white vinegar as usual, although I left out the vanilla to try to keep the meringue white - more on this later.

2. Follow the beating protocol in Pavlova quest part I by beating to soft peaks, then adding sugar gradually on speed 6, then upping the speed to 10. I added the sugar much more slowly, taking around 4-5 mins, then when beating on speed 10 I stopped maybe every minute or so to check the stiffness. I was looking for stiff peaks that stood upright when lifting the beaters out, but still curled over when I inverted the beaters (pointing skywards). So pretty stiff, but not yet over beaten. Whole process took about 10 minutes. Apparently, according to Phillipa Sibley, if there's a meringue shaped hole when you lift the beaters, that's way too far.

3. Piled the pav higher and a smaller circle than before, to allow for some spreading.

4. Preheat to 150C only, then turn down to 110C immediately, and bake for two hours. Leave in oven overnight.

And here's the result:

Yep, great height, kept shape beautifully, cracking not too bad (at least compared to previous one!), colour ok. And another photo just to see the height:

RESULT!!!

So what have I learnt?

I think my oven is still a little too hot as the cracking indicates the meringue was still expanding after the shell had mostly set, but I'm wary about going less than 100C due to issues with weeping that I've had before (100C is a critical temp for cracking, as above this steam is still being generated by the marshmallow part during the drying out of the entire meringue). I'm not sure whether the weeping previously was due to under or over cooking..... Both seem to be possibilities! 

I left out the vanilla as I read it makes the pav look browner, rather than snowy white, but as the second attempt was also pinky brown, albeit much lighter, I think this is more due to the temp being too hot (which also explains cracking) so next experiment is either to preheat a little lower and/or cook at a lower temp.

I also had quite an airspace between the marshmallow and top part of the shell. This doesn't really worry me normally, as I just fill it with cream and fruit, but this time the cracking was slight enough that I didn't really notice until we cut the pav and there was a small collapse! The great website above seems to imply that this is due to an overly long cooking time (as the marshmallow is now shrinking as it loses moisture), so this just points to the need for lower temps (or shorter cook times). Overlooking also causes weeping supposedly, as sugar leaves the mix in solution (excess moisture?). So given my oven retains heat so well maybe I need to also leave the door ajar on cooling, or reduce the temp after say 1 hour.

So many parameters to test, so many pavs to make!

Stay tuned for part 3.....