Strawberry pavlova with white chocolate mousse
July 10, 2008 | 21 Comments
I’m back from a long weekend of gluttony in Montreal the details of which I’ll share in another post, but first I wanted to follow up on the promise to deliver a strawberry recipe. This is my interpretation of the most delicious dessert I’ve ever eaten. It was served for dessert as part of our seven course “gourmet menu” at Restaurant Toqué in Montreal.
Since my first visit over 5 years ago, I’ve held Chef Normand Laprise’s cuisine in the highest regard. I’ve even called Toqué my favourite restaurant of all time. Since that first visit though, I’ve had the opportunity to try many wonderful restaurants and I worried that I’d be disappointed on my return. That concern was quickly put to rest after a course or two and I walked out practically glowing. While every course struck the perfect balance between creative and delicious, the dessert was the real humdinger.
It was a bowl of fresh strawberries covered with a white chocolate foam, crumbled meringue flakes, aerated maple candy and topped with a scoop of strawberry sorbet. It was sweet, tart, creamy, fluffy, refreshing, fruity, cool and crisp all at the same time. Definitely something that would be a part of my last meal on Earth.
With this version, you get thin layers of crisp meringue with rich creamy dollops of white chocolate mousse and maple sweetened strawberries. It’s not quite the same, but it was simple enough to prepare on a weeknight and almost as tasty.
makes enough for 4
for the meringue
1 egg white
1/4 C powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanillafor the mousse
1/2 C heavy cream + 1 1/2 Tbs cream
3 oz good quality white chocolate (I used Callebaut)for strawberries
1/2 pint strawberries hulled, halved and sliced
1 Tbs grade B maple syrup
1 tsp lemon juice
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
Whip the egg whites in the bowl of a clean (if there are any oils on your bowl or whisk, the egg whites will not whip) electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar a little bit at a time until fully incorporated and the meringue is glossy. Add the vanilla and whip to combine.
Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and spread the meringue into a very thin even layer. You could also pipe the meringue with a small round tip if you want to make it less rustic looking.
Bake the meringue for about 45 minutes. It’s a bit tough to tell when it’s cooked because it will still feel a little soft even when it’s done (it crisps as it cools). If you bake it too long, it will start to brown, but if you bake it too little you’ll have a soft gooey mess, so if in doubt, leave it in a little longer.
Allow the meringue to cool then gently separate it from the mat. If it breaks it’s fine as you’ll want to break it into smaller pieces anyhow.
While the meringue is in the oven, melt the white chocolate with 1 1/2 Tbs of cream stirring till smooth then let it cool down till it’s lukewarm. Whip the cream until soft peaks are just starting to form. Add the melted white chocolate in 2 additions then whip until the cream holds soft peaks (be careful not to over whip it or you’ll end up with butter). Refrigerate the cream until you’re ready to assemble the pavlovas.
For the strawberries, just clean, hull, halve, then slice them and toss with the maple syrup and lemon juice. You could use any type of maple syrup, but I personally like grade B because it’s darker and has more maple flavour.
To assemble, just put a dab of mousse on the plate to hold the first piece of meringue in place. Top with a dollop of mousse then spoon some strawberries on top. Cover with another piece of meringue, topping with more mousse and strawberries. Finish with a third piece of meringue and top with a bit more mousse and a garnish (I used strawberries sliced in half). Serve immediately as the meringue will start to absorb the liquid and go soft very quickly.
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Category: Dessert | Fruit
Tags: australia, Dessert, meringue, montreal, mousse, new zealand, pavlova, Strawberries, strawberry, sweet, white chocolate
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21 Responses to “Strawberry pavlova with white chocolate mousse”
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Hey, welcome back Marc! That has to be the classiest incarnation of a Pavlova I’ve ever seen! Well done.
Oh my this is one heck of a dessert…looks boo-te-ful.
beautiful interpretation! and love the colours. so simple and classic and elegant. love it! that strawberry that’s sat on top as well has got to be the most perfect strawberry ever — so well proportioned.
gotta love that mousse.
This is really a beautiful version of the classic pavlova…beautiful Marc.
Aerated? Foam? Ah, restaurant-speak. I definitely like the look of your version. White chocolate is one of my favourite things and those strawberries look perfect
It looks so beautiful. And delicious! I love how delicate pavlovas are.
This looks AMAZING! I’m not sure I’d quite consider it “whip up on a weekday” material, but for something so stunning, I like that it doesn’t take too long to prepare. Since strawberry season seems to be on its way out, I wonder how a raspberry & dark chocolate combo would be…
Oh My!!! Marc your really kill me with this!!!! look lovely,amazing,tasty, all!!!!! xxGloria
I want to take a big bite of that!! Meringue & strawberries are some of my favorites.
This looks amazing.
Oh. my. gosh! I just moaned out loud a little. I’m not even a dessert person! Please… may I have a taste… darn you…
strawberries. white chocolate. i would argue that few things make a better combination. let the drooling commence.
I love this ‘modernised’ pavlova. My mouth is watering as I write this. I can’t bear the fact that I can’t have some right now! Looking forward to hearing more.
Looks light and refreshing!
Fantastic! You should be very proud of yourself.
[...] 8:00 pm Filed under: No Recipes | Tags: dessert, pavlova love, strawberry baby, white chocolate Strawberry pavlova from [No [...]
So whimsical and delicious! Lovely job.
[...] - bookmarked by 2 members originally found by Movie06 on July 16, 2008 Strawberry pavlova with white chocolate mousse http://www.norecipes.com/2008/07/10/strawberry-pavlova-with-white-chocolate-mousse/ - bookmarked [...]
This dessert sounds wonderful and looks amazing-many thanks!
[...] the butter and sugar. While I’m sure it would have been quite tasty, I’ve already done white chocolate and strawberries before and was ready for something [...]
It sounds like a tidy Eton mess
Let’s do it!