Have your cake and eat it too: Pavlova

With a little help from the Leon recipe book, you can make melt-in-your-mouth pavlova like a connoisseur…

There are hundreds of ways to dress a pavlova, but this is our favourite: simple, clean and drizzled with the sharp, juicy pulp of passion fruit. We like to serve it up on individual meringues, to make the recipients feel extra special.

Serves 6
Preparation 20 minutes
Cooking 2 hours

1 Heat the oven to 120°C/100°C fan/gas mark ½. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
2 Using an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites, salt, vinegar and vanilla on a high speed until soft peaks form.
3 In a separate bowl, whisk the 200g of sugar and the cornflour together by hand and add half of this mixture to the frothy egg whites. Use the electric hand whisk to whip until very stiff. Add the remaining 100g of sugar and whisk until smooth and glossy.
4 Spoon six large scoops of meringue onto your baking sheet, 4cm apart.
5 Bake in the oven for about 2 hours, then check the meringues. Remove from the oven when dry and firm. It should
be possible to gently peel them off the paper. If they stick to the paper, they’re not ready. Leave to cool completely.
6 To assemble, place the meringues on a large serving plate or individual plates. Put a dollop of raspberry jam on each, then a generous helping of cream.
7 Cut and quarter the strawberries and toss with the 2 tbsp of caster sugar. Leave to macerate for a few minutes while you halve the passion fruits.
8 Stir the fresh strawberries and divide equally between the pavlovas. Scoop out half a passion fruit over the top of each and serve immediately.

Cook’s Tips
1 You can prepare the strawberries up to 2 hours in advance and keep them in the fridge to save time.
2 These delicious meringues can be made up to five days in advance and keep well in an airtight container.

*For more of Henry’s recipes and other health features pick up the new issue of Healthy from the 5^th November from your local Holland and Barrett store and selected retailers.