White Chocolate & Cranberry Pavlova

This is a lovely show stopping Christmas pudding. It is light but still has lots of those lovely Christmassy flavours! As with any pavlova, it should be assembled just before serving, though I'm sure it won't last long as your guests will no doubt devour it.

Serves 8-10

Prep time 1.5 hours

Cook time 2 hours, plus overnight setting the meringue

Ingredients:

Meringue:

250g egg whites, around 8 large

440g caster sugar

1½ tsp cornflour

1 tsp white wine vinegar

White chocolate cream:

200ml double cream

150g white chocolate

350ml cream

1/2 Tsp xantham

100g icing sugar sifted

Everything else:

100g pistachios

200g cranberry sauce

50g butter

250g fresh cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140C (fan).

2. To make the meringue, whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl of an electric mixer. Start on a low speed and then increase when the whites have become foamy. Whisk for several minutes to soft peaks.

3. Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, while the machine is running. Add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk again to incorporate.

4. Place the bowl over a small pan of simmering water and hand whisk for another 10 minutes until glossy and thick.

5. Draw 5 circles, small to large, on two or three sheets or baking parchment. Flip them over and secure with a small blob of meringue in each corner on flat metal baking sheets, so that the pen is on the underside.

6. Spoon the meringue onto the parchment and smooth into the circles. Put straight into the oven and bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and leave the meringues in there for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

7. For the white chocolate cream, warm the 200ml double cream in a small sauce pan. Once warmed add the white chocolate and mix continuously until the chocolate has melted. Decant this into a bowl and allow to cool completely.

8. Whip the remaining cream to soft peaks. Sift in icing sugar and xantham gently fold it in; you don’t want to over-whip the cream, but if you do, just add a little more to thin it. Add the white chocolate cream and fold again to combine.

9. For the cranberries, melt the butter in a wide sauce pan. Add the fresh cranberries and cook for 10 minutes until softened, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat to cool.

10. Toast the pistachios in a dry frying pan for 5 minutes and then chop into slivers. In a small mixing bowl, give the cranberry sauce a good mix to loosen and becomes a more spreadable consistency.

11. To assemble, place the largest of the meringue disks on the serving dish. Spread the white chocolate cream almost to the edges. Top with the softened cranberry sauce, a few of the cooked cranberries and scatter with some of the pistachios. Repeat for the remaining 3 layers and top with the smallest one.