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Chocolate Meringue Base For Pavlova

Asked by LizaP03. Answered on 27th November 2019

Full question

This was delicious! I’ve made it a few times but keep running into the same problem- I end up with a sort of pav pita. There’s the crisp outer shell puffed up into a sort of bubble and the marshmallow-y center quite a bit below that, so there’s quite a lot of air space between the two. Is correct? How can I avoid it if it’s not?

Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova
Photo by Petrina Tinslay
Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova
By Nigella
  • 14
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Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova (from NIGELLA SUMMER) has a meringue base that is flavoured with cocoa powder and studded with nuggets of finely chopped chocolate. The meringue base may rise a little during baking and then sink back and crack slightly as it cools, but this is quite normal.

If you are getting very large bubbles of air in the meringue then it is possible that the egg whites are being whisked too fast. This can be easy to do with an electric whisk or free-standing mixer. If the egg whites are whisked on high speed they tend to form large bubbles of air, which then expand in the oven. To help prevent this, start whisking the egg whites on low speed then move up to a medium speed when the egg whites have become foamy. Continue to beat on medium speed until the whites form soft peaks.

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