Pavlova: dessert fit for a queen

J & G Steakhouse Raspberry Rose Pavlova

At the W Hotel's J & G Steakhouse at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (near the White House), we stumbled upon this decadent dessert. The Pavlova had raspberry sorbet, raspberry- rose water coulis with cream, a ring of fresh raspberries topped with crunchy meringue (crunchy cookie made with egg whites and sugar).
Almost immediately after taking the first few bites, I realized that home cooks could recreate this delicious sweet and crunchy dessert with the burst of summer berries. The rose water made it mysterious and delicate, even regal. Dessert fit for a queen, and easy to make!

I like the idea of sharing this dessert with another, so the portions are ideal for two people sharing dessert after a large meal. Easy to adapt to the typical recipe size for 4-6 people.

If you would like to make meringues from scratch or get ideas about assembly, check out the primer from Bon Appétit.

Ingredients:
Sorbet/coulis:
-2-3 cups Summer berries, such as raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. The larger the berry, the more you need, so 2 cups for blueberries and 3 cups for whole strawberries. Fresh if possible, frozen is fine. This is more than enough for 4-6 servings and should yield almost 3 cups.

-1/2 cup sugar or one half (6 ounces from a 12-ounce container) pure juice concentrate, either a raspberry or grape blend (for berries).

Note: For one shared serving, crush with or blend with blender a handful of berries (almost one cup) with 2 tablespoons sugar. For a large amount I recommend using a blender.

Other ingredients:
-One scoop (use pint to serve 4 people) French (or just regular) vanilla ice cream.

-One teaspoon (single serving) or 1 tablespoon (4-6 servings) rose water, sold in international aisle, Middle Eastern/halal markets. This is important for enhancing the taste, so please try to find it.

-2 teaspoons/tablespoons heavy cream or thaw some of the vanilla ice cream

-7 to 11 raspberries per serving

-Enough vanilla meringue(s) to cover the ice cream and sorbet. I bought meringues from Trader Joe's and used 4. Whole Foods sells smaller meringues that can be clustered on top. If you make your own, you can make one large meringue.

Directions for sorbet/coulis:
Blend or mash fruit and sugar/concentrate in freezer-safe bowl. Or get a gallon-size freezer bag and squeeze until lumps go away. Great activity for kids. Just make sure the bag is sealed properly! Freeze for 3 or more hours. Ideally it won't be a hard block in order to scoop in onto serving dish. I prefer sorbet like at the restaurant. They also add another sauce, but the sorbet will melt and create the sauce. If pressed for time, there is no need to freeze.

Raspberry Rose Pavlova at home

Assembly:
-Place small scoop of sorbet onto plate. Flatten.
-Add cream around the outside and splash rose water.

-Position a scoop of ice cream.
-Place berries around ice cream, creating a ring.

-Top with meringues, then place berry in the middle.

Serve immediately. Crunch and swoon!

Food for thought: Browned butter in the real world- a recipe for Raspberry Financiers

RASPBERRY FINANCIERS

2 whole eggs
2 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 pinch salt
¾ cup brown butter*, warm
2 - 3 half pints fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs through honey. Set on a pot of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is warm (if you don't whisk constantly, you'll end up with scrambled eggs).

Remove bowl from heat and gently whisk in the flour, sugar and salt. Gradually mix in the warm butter (butter should be the same temperature as the egg mixture).

At this point, you can either fold in the raspberries (if you do this, I suggest using frozen berries so they don't fall apart) and divide the batter between two 9-inch cake pans, OR you can pipe the batter into Madeleine molds or mini muffin tins, then press a few raspberries into the batter.

Bake until the financiers are golden brown, puffed and firm to the touch; about 15 minutes for the mini muffin tins/Madeleine molds, and about 30 - 40 minutes for the cake pans.

*Approximately ¾ lb (12 oz.) unsalted butter will yield ¾ cup brown butter.
Lovely Laurie has sent forth this heavenly recipe for raspberry financiers.
A necessary ingredient in this recipe is browned butter. Ay, papi, you gotta have brown butter!
Don't use margarine and wonder why your stuff doesn't taste real! Click here to find out how to brown butter (better late than never.)

And Laurie asks us to bear in mind that this restaurant recipe has been drastically reduced, so it may need extra tweaking. Thanks for sharing! Check out where Miss L. was turning out fantissimal desserts: http://www.absinthe.com/

For those too lazy to click, you will not be denied the dessert menu...



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