© J Sainsbury plc 2020
Christmas pavlova with curd and orange
As much as I love them, the familiar Christmas pudding and cake can pose a challenge after a festive main course; here, a lighter though no less pleasing alternative, that you can adapt as you like. I’ve made this with toppings of passion fruit, finely chopped dates, chocolate shavings, crushed walnuts and poached pears, so do experiment
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Ready in 1 hour 35 minutes
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Cooking time 1 hour 15 minutes
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Prep time 20 minutes
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Serves 10
Ingredients
- Sunflower or olive oil for greasing
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 heaped tsp of ground cloves
- 6 egg whites
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 2 tsp cornflour
- 60g toasted flaked almonds
- 200ml double cream
- 1 orange, ½ the zest finely grated
- 320g jar Orange and passionfruit curd (or use lemon curd with juice and seeds from two passion fruit)
Method
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1
Heat the oven to 130°C.
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2
Use an approx 24cm cake tin as a template to draw a circle on a piece of baking paper. Lightly oil the paper, and place in a baking tray
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3
In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer until thick, glossy and holding medium peaks. On a low speed, whisk in 300g of the sugar - a little at a time - and continue to whisk, adding half of the spices and cornflour, until thick and glossy
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4
Spoon the meringue into the centre of the circle on the baking tray, and spread it out to the edges of the circle with a butter knife. You can swirl and shape the meringue at this point
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5
Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 100°C and cook for a further 45-60 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlova to cool for a couple of hours or overnight: this minimises cracking
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6
Put the cream and orange zest in a clean mixing bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks
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7
Spread the curd on the centre of the pavlova. Top with the cream
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8
Just before serving, peel and slice the orange and place the slices on top, sprinkle with flaked almonds and dust with the remaining half of the spice blend
