Festive Vegan Pavlova
Who knew aquafaba – the humble juice from a can of chickpeas– could open up a world of egg-ish possibilities?! It’s true! From dredging to binding to miraculously meringue-ing, aquafaba can sub in for eggs and absolutely hold its own (wink).
In true Eggs and Peas style, this blog post is not an expert, recipe-tested “how-to make the perfect foolproof vegan pavlova” post. Rather, it is a play-by-play documentation of my first adventure into the great unknown of aquafaba, aka bean juice, desserts. Now watch closely as I make “eggs” out of “peas” right before your very eyes!
The inspiration for this post came from Season 6, Episode 7 of The Great British Baking Show – “Vegan Week.” Thanks be to binge-watching Netflix! In the technical challenge for “Vegan Week,” the contestants were asked to reproduce Prue Leith’s Vegan Tropical Pavlova and the results blew my mind. I couldn’t wait to attempt an aquafaba pavlova for myself!
After researching a few recipes, I decided to follow Jasmine Lukuku’s straightforward “Magical Vegan Pavlova – Aquafaba Recipe” from Black Food Bloggers Club by The Blenderist and make a few adjustments by incorporating some of the techniques I observed on The Great British Baking Show. I look forward to giving Prue Leith’s actual recipe a go as soon as I get a kitchen scale.
In addition to satisfying my aquafaba curiosity with this post, I also hope to satisfy the requirements the final blog post assignment for culinary skills class in my MS in Nutrition program at NUNM. The instructions for my assignment were as follows: Bake a bread or pastry of your choice, that includes a leavening agent, and create a blog post detailing the process in words and in photos. Document all of the steps in detail so that it is easy to follow, from the mis-en-place through the final product, including a description of how the leavening agent works. The final product should look appetizing.
According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, a leavening agent is, “a substance causing expansion of doughs and batters by the release of gases within such mixtures, producing baked products with porous structure. Such agents include air, steam, yeast, baking powder, and baking soda.” In this vegan aquafaba-based pavlova, the leavening agent is air and the method by which it is incorporated is the physical action of whipping at a high speed. Like egg whites, whipped aquafaba can produce a sturdy and voluminous foam that (fingers crossed) dries and keeps its shape and structure when baked.
Let’s do this!
This blog post is organized into three parts:
Making the aquafaba pavlova
Preparing the fruit topping
Making the coconut liliko’i cream
Aquafaba Pavlova Ingredients
1 cup aquafaba
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp alcohol free pure vanilla flavor
1/2 tsp non-alcoholic almond flavor
Serves: 8
I started off by cleaning my work area and assembling my tools and ingredients. I used a vintage Black&Decker hand mixer and a stand-alone stainless steel bowl, but a stand mixer with a ballon whisk attachment will also do. And, in theory, I suppose that a whisk and some good ol’ fashioned elbow grease would also work. Big props to you if you decide go that route!
Phewf! Thank goodness for mise-en-place! Luckily, while lining up all of the ingredients, I caught myself about to sub distilled white vinegar for the white wine vinegar called for in the recipe! There IS a difference! Be sure to use white wine vinegar. It is milder and less pungent than its distilled white counterpart.
TIP: Store-bought powdered sugar often comes densely packed. Before measuring out the 2 1/2 cups called for in the recipe, I sifted the powdered sugar by running it through a mesh strainer. It made sense to me that adding a fluffy, powdery version of sugar to my whipped aquafaba – as opposed to a dense and lumpy version – might help the whipped aquafaba retain it's airy structure.
Pavalova Play-by-Play
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and trace a 9” diameter circle on the paper. Turn the parchment paper over so that the pencil marked side is facedown against the pan. You will still be able to see the circle for pavlova placement.
Drain the liquid from one can of chickpeas (approximately 1 cup) and store the chickpeas for use in another recipe.
Line up your pre-measured ingredients so they’re all set to add to whipped aquafaba when the timing is right. In the photo below appearing from left to right in front of the aquafaba are 2 tbsp cornstarch, 1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla flavor + 1/2 tsp almond flavor combined.
In a metal bowl whip the aquafaba on medium speed until it begins to froth. This first step of bringing the aquafaba to a froth at medium speed comes from the procedure contestants followed on Season 6, Episode 7 of The Great British Baking Show.
This is what my aquafaba looked like after approximately 2 minutes. You can see the leavening agent – air – beginning to get trapped within the foamy structure of the aquafaba.
Continue to whip the aquafaba on high speed. I got into a rhythm of moving the hand mixer forward and back across the bowl as I slowly spun the bowl. Pictured below is how my aquafaba looked after 2 minutes on high speed (approximately 4 minutes of total whipping time). Notice the increasing density of the foam.
Keep whipping the aquafaba at high speed until stiff peaks form. Pictured below is how my aquafaba looked after approximately 8 minutes of high speed whipping (10 minutes of total whipping time).
TIP: So, how does one know when stiff peaks form? I looked at the structure of the foam and its increasing moldability. Have you ever played with shaving cream and made a pointy white beard out of the stuff on your chin? This is the property of the aquafaba foam you’re looking for. You can see this structure developing nicely in the following photos.
To achieve stiff-peaks-consistency, it took me approximately 13 minutes of high speed whipping (15 minutes of total whipping time).
Don’t be discouraged if it takes you longer than this. Keep going until you get the appropriate structure. If you never, ever get to stiff-peaks-consistency, this post from The Kitchn might help you understand why.
I recall a few contestants on The Great British Baking Show turning their bowls upside-down and holding them over their heads to prove that stiff-peaks consistency had been reached. When I thought I had stiff peaks, I inverted my bowl and held it high over my head and by-golly the foam stayed in the bowl!
Once you’ve got stiff peaks, reduce your mixing speed to medium and add the sugar a little at a time to maintain the fluffy structure of your whipped aquafaba.
After adding all the sugar, increase the mixing speed to high and whip until fluffy again.
Reduce the mixing speed to low and incorporate the remaining ingredients: the cornstarch, vinegar, and vanilla and almond flavor.
Use a rubber spatula to smooth the pavlova mix into the sheet pan lined with parchment paper, using the 9” circle as a guide.
Place the pavlova into the 350 degree F oven and turn down the temperature to 300 degrees F.
Bake for 90 minutes. Pictured below is my pavlova mid-bake. While baking, it expanded, spreading out beyond the 9” circle.
Next time, I will probably split the pavlova batter in half and bake two 9” circles on separate baking trays/sheet pans.
Prepare the fruit for the topping while the pavlova finishes baking.
TIP: Place a metal bowl in the freezer in preparation for making the coconut liliko’i cream.
Fruit Topping Ingredients
2 red mangoes, sliced and scooped out with a spoon
fuyu persimmons, peeled and sliced into wedges
green grapes, halved
pomegranate seeds (half a pomegranate)
crystalized ginger, cut into thin strips
frozen raspberries
After baking, Jasmine Lukuku’s instructions are to turn the oven off and let the pavlova cool completely inside the oven. I was impatient and skipped this step, opting to pull the pavlova out and place it on a cooling rack like I saw the contestants do in The Great British Baking Show.
This may be one of many reasons why my pavlova cracked.
While the pavlova finishes cooling, prepare the coconut liliko’i cream.
Coconut Liliko’i Cream Ingredients
1 can coconut cream
1/4 cup of homemade liliko’i (passionfruit) jelly
Place the contents of the coconut cream can in a chilled metal bowl.
Whip at high speed until a fluffy consistency is reached.
Reduce speed to Medium and add jelly a little at a time.
Pictured below is the consistency of my coconut liliko’i cream when finished whipping.
Once the pavlova has cooled, it’s time to assemble and decorate the dessert!
Gently remove the pavlova from the parchment paper and place it on a serving platter. My pavlova cracked a little more during this process. If this happens to you, too, have no fear – coconut liliko’i cream and fruit toppings to the rescue!
Smooth some of the coconut liliko’i cream on the surface of the pavlova.
Then, top with fruit and thinly sliced strips of crystalized ginger.
Slice, serve, and enjoy the miracle of making “eggs” out of “peas” and then into a dessert!
Yes, my pavlova buckled under the weight of all the fruit piled on top. Yes, it didn’t slice perfectly. BUT, it was incredibly decadent and delicious!
I am eagerly anticipating my next aquafaba adventure!
Pictured below is my first slice of vegan aquafaba pavlova plated. I shaved some dark chocolate over the top of it just because ;)
