Prep time:

Cooking time: 4 hours 10 minutes

Total time:

Serves: 12

5 Egg Whites

170g Caster Sugar

½tsp Vanilla Essence

½tsp Raspberry Vinegar

½tsp Cornflour

100g Soft Brown Sugar

50ml Water

4 Egg Yolks

250g Unsalted Butter

1/2 Small Tin Chestnut Puree

400ml Double Cream

1/2 Small Tin Chestnut Puree

½tsp Vanilla Essence

1tbsp Icing Sugar

100g Walnuts

A lot of people don’t like Christmas pudding so I always think you need an alternative. I do a chestnut pavlova which is wonderful because you can make it days in advance and put in the freezer with the filling, then whack the cream on the day before. It’s a lovely soft meringue, quite gooey

  1. Method for meringue rounds:
  2. Grease two 9” baking tins (round), line with greaseproof paper and then grease the paper.
  3. Whisk egg whites till stiff. Gradually add in ½ sugar and continue whisking until it forms peaks – now add the vanilla, cornflour and raspberry vinegar towards the end of beating.
  4. Spread into 2 baking tins and bake for about 2 ½ hours at 75°C. Turn off oven and leave for a further 1 hour to dry out meringue. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before very carefully lifting from baking tin and peeling off the paper.
  5. Method for meringue sandwich mixture:
  6. Beat egg yolks. Dissolve sugar in water and boil to 120°C and pour onto egg yolks and whisk until thick.
  7. Cream butter and beat into eggs. Loosen the chestnut puree and add to the egg mixture. On one side of the meringue spread the butter and egg mix then sandwich 2 halves of cake together. Put into the fridge for 2 hours until the butter has firmed up.
  8. Method for topping and round the sides to form the cake:
  9. Whip double cream until quite thick and add icing sugar. Soften the chestnut puree with the vanilla essence, fold one third of the cream into the chestnut and mix, then fold in the rest of the cream.
  10. Spread on top and round the sides and decorate with ground and chopped walnuts or almonds. Then dust with icing sugar. Put into the fridge until ready to eat.

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