Brown sugar pavlova with banana cream and butterscotch sauce

[HEART] still pumping

[EYES] Pleasant words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul... - Prov 16:24

[EARS] swishing laundry

[HEAD] You are what you eat? Of course not!

[HANDS] useful 

I like to challenge myself to try something new everyday.

Last week, I allowed someone to pluck my eyebrows. Now one side is thicker than the other. (You can imagine the shock when I looked into the mirror).

The other day, I brushed my teeth with my left-hand. Standing on one leg. Ok, maybe I didn't. Hmmmm.

Last night, I overcame my fear of yeast and finally made a pizza dough from scratch.

Then today, I tried to make a pavlova with minimal sugar. I should've known better.

Because it failed.

Big time.

After over an hour in the oven, there were no signs of a cracking or crunchy looking exterior - the best part of the pav. It is just a huge brown marshmallow blob only just very slightly crisp crusted. My heart sank. Especially after waiting so long for it in the oven.

Sometimes, you just shouldn't try too many new things at once.

The thing is I do like pavlovas (and if you had met me 10 years ago, I'd tell you in my perfect kiwi accent that the pav is New Zealand born and bred!) but I just find them a bit sweet for my liking. Plus, I have been working to reduce my sugar intake lately (sugar addiction is a hard thing to kick I tell ya). So I reduced the amount of sugar to at least a 1/4 of what was stated in the recipe and just sprinkled some dark brown sugar at the end. The result is a pillowy soft/chewy pav. I don't know if it qualifies as a pav actually. Or maybe I just didn't whip up the egg whites long enough to be thick, glossy and smooth.

If anything amazing resulted from this incident, it's the butterscotch sauce that was whipped up in 5 minutes. You have to try it. It is so good, so simple. And when I think of butterscotch, I think of bananas (might be because of banana butterscotch pudding...yummm!). So I just couldn't resist adding some mashed bananas in with the cream.

The resulting dessert is still delicious sans the crisp crust. I'm sure you'll have better luck with this recipe than I have. Or have more sense not to omit so much of the sugar ;)

Butterscotch sauce
Adapted from SmittenKitchen
About 2/3 to 3/4 cup sauce

• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons, 2 ounces or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (about 109 grams) packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (118 ml) heavy cream (thickened cream)
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) flaky sea salt (or 1/4 teaspoon regular salt), plus more to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 ml) vanilla extract, plus more to taste

1. Melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cream and salt and whisk until well blended. Bring to a very gentle boil and cook for about five minutes, whisking occasionally.

2. Remove from heat and add one teaspoon of the vanilla extract, stirring to combine and this is where, despite the simplicity of the recipe, you get to feel all “chef-y”. Dip a spoon in the sauce and carefully taste the sauce (without burning your tongue!) to see if you want to add additional pinches or salt or splashes of vanilla. Tweak it to your taste, whisking well after each addition. I ended up using a full teaspoon of flaky salt and the listed amount of vanilla to get a butterscotch sauce with a very loud, impressive butterscotch flavor but the strength of your vanilla and intensity of your salt may vary.

3. Serve cold or warm over vanilla ice cream, roasted pears or pound cake. The sauce will thicken as it cools. It can be refrigerated in an airtight container and reheated in a microwave or small saucepan.

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Brown Sugar Pavlova with banana cream and butterscotch sauce
Makes 6 small pavlovas

• 4 egg whites
• 150g caster sugar
• 120g brown sugar
• 10g cornflour
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 400ml thickened cream
• 2 banana, mashed
• 2 small punnet blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Whisk eggwhites with a pinch of salt in an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then with motor running, gradually add caster sugar. Whisk until stiff peaks form and mixture is thick and glossy. Add 70g brown sugar, whisk until sugar is incorporated and mixture is glossy. Fold in cornflour, vinegar and vanilla extract.

2. Spoon meringue into 6 9cm diameter mound on a baking paper lined oven tray and bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour. Turn off oven and cool completely.

3. Whisk cream and remaining brown sugar together until soft peaks form. Spoon on top of pavlova, top with the mashed banana, blueberries and drizzle with butterscotch sauce.

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Apple crumble + butterscotch pudding

Some days, a simply humble apple crumble just isn't enough.

You can perhaps dress it up...how about with a scoop of vanilla icecream?

No? Still not fancy enough huh?

Okay, how about this...a nice dollop of butterscotch pudding?

Butterscotch pudding...so smooth

Perfect! *nods happily*

Exactly what I needed on a lazy day like this...

The butterscotch pudding is the first recipe I have used from the book Baked: New Frontiers in Baking which I purchased last year. The authors are the owners of the famous bakery 'Baked' in Brooklyn, NY and there are so many creative recipes in there that I will hopefully make my way through one day! This is not the complete recipe however, as the pudding is supposed to sit on top of a oat-based tart. I'm too lazy to deal with pastry today...

The recipe for the apple crumble can be found here.

Butterscotch Pudding
From Baked: New Frontiers of Baking

Note: I halved the ingredients below and omitted the whisky addition

• 6 large egg yolks
• ¾ cup granulated sugar (I halved the sugar...as always)
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

- Put the egg yolks in a large heat proof bowl and set aside.

- In a small saucepan, combine the granulated sugar, and ¼ cup water and stir gently with a heatproof spatula. Brush down the sides of the pan to melt any loose sugar crystals. Cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved, then increase the heat to medium-high heat and cook until the mixture begins to turn dark amber color. Swirl the pan, if necessary, to create an even color, but do not stir. Remove from heat and use the heatproof spatula to stir in the cream. Pour the caramel into small bowl. Set aside.

- In another small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in the milk and whisk to combine.

- Add the seeds from the vanilla bean and the vanilla bean pod. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the caramel. Whisk together until combined, then slowly pour one third of the mixture over the eggs, whisking continually. Keep whisking the egg mixture and add another third of the hot milk mixture. Transfer the egg mixture back to the saucepan with the milk minute and, whisking the whole time, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 3-4 minutes, or until very thick and a bit darker in color.

-Remove from the heat and whisk vigorously for about 1 minute to cool the pudding slightly. Let the pudding sit for about 15 minutes.

- Now that the pudding has cooled a tad, add the butter.

- Chill the pudding in the fridge for an hour, to thicken it. (I omitted this step and used it on the apple crumble straight away).

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