After a long hiatus, I’m back in the kitchen. I temporarily lost my cooking mojo and I’ve been working to get it back. I had to spend some time thinking about what excites me. I occurred to met that I love experiments. There is something so fun about working with an unfamiliar ingredient and whipping it in to submission. In the case of this Vegan Pavlova, the whipping is literal.
The food blog world has gone crazy for aquafaba. Aquafaba is the water you drain off of a can of chick peas. You can use it in place of egg-whites in recipes. It even whips up into stiff peaks and makes a meringue that is startlingly similar to eggs. Everyone who tasted these vegan pavlovas was shocked to hear they were made without eggs.
If you want to read more about the science, you can visit this Aquafaba site. There is a whole community of people sharing information about this simple ingredient.
I decided I wanted to start experimenting from scratch. Instead of checking to see how others are using it in recipes, I decided to go a little gonzo and make up my own pavlova recipe. I’ve made standard pavlovas before, so I was confident I could get a decent product. I’m happy to say it was excellent on the first attempt.
Before you make vegan meringue, you will want to reduce your aquafaba. Here is a little tutorial if you need some visuals…How to Reduce Aquafaba for Vegan Meringue.
When you take these out of the oven, they may look cracked or collapse a little in the middle. Don’t stress it, you are going to cover it up before serving. No one will care!
I have more aquafaba experiments planned. I’d like to attempt some macarons like my friends over at My Wife Makes. I’d also love to make some tarts with a marshmallow meringue top…mmmmmmm!
I highly recommend playing around with this fascinating ingredient. I love that it gives new life to something you would normally pour down the drain!
One thing to note, this is a very high sugar recipe. I don’t think you could replace the sugar and get an edible result. If you can’t/don’t eat sugar, I invite you to check out some of my lower carb recipes.
PrintMagical Vegan Pavlova – Aquafaba Recipe
Prep Time: 15 mins- Cook Time: 90 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 mins
Yield: 6-8 individual pavlovas
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This recipe uses aquafaba. Aquafaba is the liquid drained from a can of chickpeas.
Ingredients
- Meringue
- 1 cup aquafaba(drained from a can of chickpeas)
- 2.5 cups icing sugar
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 1.5 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Toppings:
- 2 cups whipped coconut cream(or other non-dairy whipped cream)
- Sliced fruits of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Using an standmixer, whip the aquafaba on high-speed until it forms stiff peaks.
- Reduce the speed to medium and slowly add the powdered sugar. Once all the sugar is added, increase the speed to high until you get an even, fluffy mix. Don’t over do it!
- Reduce the speed to low and add the remaining ingredients.
- Scoop the mixture on to a cookie sheet (or 2) lined with parchment paper or silpat. You will want to make 6 circles of meringue that are about 4 inches across. They might spread a bit in the oven, so give them a little room. You might need 2 cookie sheets!
- PUT THE PAVLOVA IN THE OVEN AND TURN THE TEMPERATURE DOWN TO 300F IMMEDIATELY.
- Bake for 90 minutes, then turn off the oven.
- Prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon and let the pavlova cool completely.
- Don’t worry if they look cracked or collapsed in the middle, you are can easily cover it up!
- Once they are cool, add dollop of whipped coconut cream and spread it around.
- Top with a mixture of your favourite fruits.
