It's that time of year again when I'm preoccupied with thoughts of ice cream, and different ways of eating and presenting it. Ice cream and frozen treats are one of the best things about summer!
Remember how I've been boasting about being more productive and timely lately in cooking/baking recipes that catch my eye thanks to a little organization and menu-planning that I started doing this year? Well, for all that, there are plenty of old recipes ripped out from magazines or bookmarked from websites that still await. You could say these chocolate pavlovas were five years in the making. The recipe that inspired this comes from an old Jan. 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living that I kept. I don't know if I used to be more sentimental or if past content was better than it is now but I have a handful of old magazines I can't seem to part with...and that's unlike me since I love throwing things out!
Once in a blue moon, I take out one of those old magazines and remember why I kept them. With ice cream on my mind, I decided to make a few small pavlovas inspired by the one in the magazine and use them as a base for some ice cream instead of the chocolate and whipped cream featured in the original.
I didn't want/need a giant pavlova so I divided the recipe in half and "stretched" it into three 4-inch chocolate pavlovas, just what I needed for an afternoon summer treat for the three of us. I was thinking of them as little serving plates or saucers for the ice cream.
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| The gorgeous chocolate pavlova in the Jan. 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living that inspired my far-less-gorgeous mini ones for ice cream |
I didn't want/need a giant pavlova so I divided the recipe in half and "stretched" it into three 4-inch chocolate pavlovas, just what I needed for an afternoon summer treat for the three of us. I was thinking of them as little serving plates or saucers for the ice cream.
I stretched a bit too much (or maybe I should say "too thin")...I tend to forget that lofty mounds of meringue spread and thin out after baking. So my pavlovas were flatter than I envisioned. I probably baked them a bit longer than I should have, too. The very centers were still nice and chewy - with chocolate flavor that's distinctive yet light - but the edges were drier and harder than I was aiming for. This is what I get for messing with recipes sometimes, but no regrets.
A few minutes into eating this, we were breaking the pavlovas up with our hands and making a mess of it. It was a tasty mess though so no one complained. If you're a fan of contrasting textures like I am, you might enjoy your ice cream this way too.
On the general subject of pavlovas and meringues, Francois Payard makes a roule cake with these meringue curls on top that are soft as pillows! My pavlova and meringue-making (and even eating) experience is very limited but I'd sure love to know how to make those...they literally melt in your mouth. Every time I see, make, or eat any kind of meringue, I talk about those and I just may be holding all others against that standard.
