Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova

Chocolate and peppermint just speak Christmas

to me, so when I first had this fabulous dessert,

I had to make it myself.  I made this and blogged

about it a couple of years ago, but this one is even

more Christmas party worthy, that I had to

blog about it.

The recipe originally came from

Williams Sonoma but

here is my adapted recipe.  It really is

easy to make, but does take a little time.  I

actually recipes like that for when I want a

shopwstopper of a dessert. 

Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova

Meringue Rounds

12 egg whites, room temperature

3 1/2 C. sugar

2 T. cornstarch

1 T. lemon juice

1 T. vanilla extract

Place parchment paper on two really large

baking pans.  Draw 7 inch circles on the paper.

The meringues will grow so don't have them

too close together.  On my large pans I could

do 3.  My pans are 15x21.  (If you don't have

that big of a pan, you could do this process half

at a time, whipping only six of the egg whites

at a time, and then baking and repeating, but

I don't want to spend that much time waiting around.)

In a clean bowl - free from any oils, whip the

egg whites until stiff peaks just begin to form,

then slowly incorporate the sugar mixed with the cornstarch,

 about a tablespoon

at a time, and continue to do this (takes a while) until

all the sugar is incorporated. The egg whites should be 

stiff and glossy.  Remove the whip attachment and fold

in the lemon juice and the vanilla.

Spoon a couple of large dollops

on the circles, and spread the meringue almost to the

edge with a spoon and flatten out the top

with a spatula.  Try to not have any real thin edges

or spots.

I did three per pan, as these are fragile and you

might have one or two break.

Bake at 200 for 1 1/2 hours.  Turn off oven

and let meringue sit in oven for

another hour.  Remove from oven

and place pan on rack and let cool, then peel

off the paper gently, using a spatula to help

lift them.

(I have since changed this from their recipe. 

 The original recipe had

you bake the meringues for 1 hour at 300 degrees

and then remove them immediately.  That caused

the meringues to be browner than I wanted and

caused a lot of cracking.  The longer time at a

lower temperature gave me white meringues with

little or no cracking.

Chocolate Ganache

Heat 2 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream in

the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes or until

scalded.  Pour over 3 1/2 C. semi sweet chocolate

chips.  Let sit for a couple of minutes to melt the

chocolate, then whisk until smooth.  Place the bowl

in the freezer for a couple of minutes, then give the

chocolate a whisk.  The ganache is going to begin to

cool around the edges and you want to whisk it all 

together.  Keep doing this until it is a soft spreading

consistency, like pudding.  This is a quick way to

cool the ganache down.

Meanwhile chop 10-12 oz. of peppermint

bark.  I used Ghiradelli's.

Place a dollop of ganache on your cake platter.

Lift a meringue round with the help of a spatula

and center it on your cake plate.

Spoon 1/4th of the ganache almost to the edge of

the meringue layer.  Sprinkle about 1/4 of your

peppermint bark on top of the layer.  Repeat three

more times.  (William's Sonomas called for 5

layers, but I ran out of ganache and this is plenty tall.)

The meringues will crumble and break around the

edges as you cut it to serve, but no one will care

because this is out of this world delish!

Use some shards of the peppermint bark

to decorate the top.

I wanted this one a little special, so I decided to add

some glittering truffle balls.  These are just 

Lindt truffles that I glitterized.

For the gold, dip a soft bristled brush in clear vanilla,

almond, or lemon juice and then into your gold

luster dust and paint the truffle.

For the pink, paint your truffle with clear vanilla 

and then sprinkle disco dust over the vanilla.  It

will stick to the vanilla.

The last bit of decoration I added were white

chocolate wings.  Simply melt some white chocolate

discs and smear some on parchment paper using

the back of your spoon.  Sprinkle crushed candy or

sugar while the chocolate is still wet.  Place in the

fridge to harden.

Absolutely heavenly!  This one is worth the time

and effort.

Christmas memories in a bite!!

I will be posting this with

Pink Saturday