My Mum's Pav

Growing up a family get together was never complete without some piece of domestic goddess-ery from my Mum.  A chocolate cream cake for 'one of the kids' birthday's or a coffee and walnut cake for my Grandparents on their big day. 

In later years Chocolate Profiteroles stuffed to busting point with freshly whipped cream and drizzled with a  rich and sticky chocolate sauce was her preferred method for wowing the crowds at parties.  But the one thing, the constant mainstay, of her sweet toothed arsenal was her pav.  I never appreciated it fondly enough until I moved to the other side of the world, absence does make the heart grow ever fonder!

Because my Mum was such a dab hand in the kitchen I never really needed to learn to cook ... that and the fact that in full flow the kitchen belonged to my Mother and no-one else, only the foolish or uninitiated would dare enter!  My baking experience comprised pretty much entirely of pikelets and a family sized chocolate cake taken from my High Schools fundraising cook book.  Home Ec taught me how to make pizza and traffic light sandwiches though!  So there is no tale here of learning to bake at my mothers apron strings, just pure gluttony once  her magic was produced at the family table. 

Anyway, my point is that my Mum makes the best pav's.  Ever!  There was never any point in me learning to make them when she was such a pro.  Now I've been in the UK for 8 years and my taste buds have been crying out for a slice of Pav ... time to bite the bullet!  Below is my Mum's recipe for Pav, everything else is a freak of nature ;0)

My Mum's Pav
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 tsp each cornflour, white vinegar, vanilla extract
4 tbsp boiling water

In my Mother's words you add all these together and 'beat like hell'!  Further questioning managed to narrow this down to 10 mins of beating at 'full bore on my kenwood'.  I wasn't sure what a kenwood's 'full bore' would translate to with Big Bertha, I opted originally for speed 6 and then got impatient and threw caution to the wind and bumped it up to 8, but I did beat it for the full 10 minutes, which did seem a bit excessive to me.  Of course, my Mum's instructions were true to her word, the egg whites fluffed up to a soft satin white.  I used a pie dish to draw a circle on the underside of some baking paper and then spooned the fluffy egg whites on to it, shaping as I went.  I say shaping in a very general way, Mum usually gets out the palette knife and smooths the top and sides with deft movements, my attempt is far more 'rustic'.  This was then baked in an oven preheated to 170C for 10 mins, the heat was then reduced to 150C and baked for another 30 mins.  Once the timer bleeps turn the oven off but leave the pav in the oven until its cold.

Makes 1 big pav

I was so pleased with this first attempt, just the way a remember a pav tasting.  Hubby, who doesn't even like pav has had about 3 slices today.  A thumbs up in anybodies book!

This pav has been smothered in loads (and I mean loads!) of softly whipped cream, topped with a punnet of raspberries, the contents of 3 passionfruit and a punnet of strawberries halved or quartered.  Traditionally, Mum would slice a banana and place this on the pav before smothering the cream over.  The fruit would then get piled on and a well known crumbly type chocolate confectionery bar, sprinkled over the top. 

Next time I think I'll try making some individual pavs, Mum says that she has used this recipe to make generous tablespoon sized mini pavs with great success.  Bake them at a constant 150C for 3/4 of an hour and they come out all chewy and ready for devouring!