The Pavlova Controversy

I’m sure plenty of people have heard of the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, what may be less familiar is the dessert Pavlova which is actually pronounced slightly different. When she visited New Zealand in 1926 she was brilliant enough to get an entire dessert named after her (lucky girl!) and thus begins the great debate, did the dessert originate in Australia or New Zealand? My research convinced me New Zealand ultimately gets the credit since the earliest records appeared to trace back to there and many others pinpoint New Zealand as the country of origin. However the debate remains due to a similar dish being created in Australia - one with no name and no official date of creation. Apparently there’s a whole book about this debate (The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History) and while I didn’t read the book, I gathered from summaries that it also stated New Zealand as the victor. I’m sorry Australia, but it appears you are outnumbered.

Amid the controversy, Pavlova has always been a dessert that has intrigued me, but I’ve never made it. Until now that is. Pavlova is a meringue topped with heavy cream and fresh fruit, often kiwi. I have never had meringue or tasted meringue so the process of making the dish fascinated me, as I’ve always been more of a baker than a cook as well as a dessert person. I don’t think I’ve ever beaten egg whites so stiff in my life, or at least prayed they were stiff enough to hold their shape.

The unusual thing about this for me was that the uncooked meringue (which tastes like marshmallow fluff) is just spread onto parchment paper in a circle and shaped, kind of tricky in this Arizona heat when it loses its form so easily! I then had to leave it to faith that it wouldn’t spread out and become some sort of meringue pancake while baking. Into the oven it went looking like a blob of plaster and out it came, dark cream colored and crispy .

As my first meringue experience, I was very impressed. For only containing a handful of ingredients (mostly sugar and eggs), this was actually quite delicious and with heaps of whipped cream how could it not be? The texture of meringue was completely new to me and the best description I can give is that the edges were very “airy” with a little bit of a crunch. The further inside was still very light, but was a little chewy and fluffy like marshmallows, not nearly as much as taffy, but lightly reminiscent of that texture. I did some research and the unique texture is said to differ from traditional meringue slightly because Pavlova contains cornstarch. I liked how the tart kiwis balanced the sweet of the overall desert and this one is definitely going into my recipe book!