Strawberry Pavlova

I know most week's I say I love a certain type of food, and I do.

But...I LOVE MERINGUES. I love them like you love coffee or ice cream, or even sleep.

Most weeks I try to incorporate meringue into my diet in some form (healthy huh?), but to me the combination of cream, meringue and fruit can't be beaten. To be honest I could even go without the fruit but it adds a nice healthy touch.

I usually make a James Martin recipe that heats the sugar up and then is added to the egg white, and it works pretty good each time. Nice and chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Each week I watch Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets and am always left wanting to make everything he makes. Plus his relationship with one of his chef's Adam (to be said in french accent so it sounds like Adem) is hilarious! Watch the first season of his program he spends most of it bossing Adam around, and complaining about things he's designed!
Last week's show was about summer fruits, showing how to get the best out of the seasons great fruits like raspberries, strawberries and the likes. One of the recipes included a meringue, and I was hooked.

Firstly he used very few egg whites compared to most recipes I've made before and it actually yielded quite a big meringue. Secondly he used icing sugar in the recipe and folded the meringue, I've never come across this before and so was intrigued to see how it would come out.

We have a WINNER. Seriously, this is The. Best. Meringue. I. Have. Ever. Made.
It was crispy through and through, with gorgeous gooey bits in the middle and didn't crumble or fall to pieces when I cut it. I think part of the crispness is to do with my new best friend. Silpat. Get yourself one of these babies.

Here is the recipe for the red fruit pavlova. I followed it pretty much to the T, so I'm not going to re-type it here.

Instead I'm going to enjoy the last slice of pavlova! Mwhahahah!