Christmas in July - Chocolate Salted Caramel Pavlova

This is Lance’s current favourite food. I first made it for Mothers' Day and now he requests I make it all the time. If it didn’t mean I ended up with 8 egg yolks to deal with, I probably would! It is a brilliant dinner party dessert because it can all be pre-made and assembled on the day. The caramel and peanut praline can be made a few days in advance, the meringue is best made the day before to allow it to cool fully. I have made the meringues 3 days in advance too, as long as you store them in airtight containers, it works fine. Just don't assemble until a maximum of a few hours before serving.

The pavlova is rich and sweet and creamy, with the best combination of crispy meringue, sticky caramel, silky cream and crunchy praline. You only need a small slice, but then you go back for more. It’s so addictive! It looks both impressive and rustic at the same time.

 

 

Chocolate Salted Caramel Pavlova

(serve 8-10)
8 egg whites

400g caster sugar

4 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

60g dark chocolate (I use Chilli Lindt, which happens to be equal to 6 squares), finely chopped)

600mL heavy cream (alternatively, 500mL whipping cream, whipped to firm peaks)

1 batch salted caramel (recipe below)

1 batch peanut praline (recipe below)

Position your oven racks in the middle two rows. Preheat oven to 180C

Line 3 baking trays with baking paper. On the back of them, trace a circle around a dinner plate around 24cm in diameter with a thick dark pen. Lightly spray the inked side with cooking spray and place ink side down on the trays. This helps stop them moving when you are adding the meringue.

Put the eggwhites in the bowl of your standmixer with the whisk attachment and whisk until soft peaks form. With the mixer still running, add a tablespoon of sugar at a time and continue beating until it goes stiff and glossy. It’s ready when you can lift the head of the mixer and the eggwhite mixture doesn’t drop off the whisk.

Take the bowl out of the machine and sift the cocoa powder, vinegar and chocolate. Gently fold this through the eggwhite mixture until it is an even pale brown colour.

Divide the mixture evenly between the 3 circles and then smooth with a spatula or back of a spoon to create flat, even layers.

Pop the trays in the oven and reduce the temperature straight away down to 140C. Cook for an hour. Don’t open the door at all during this time. When it’s ready, it will be crunchy on the outside and a little golden on the edges. Turn the oven off and leave the door of the oven ajar (use a wooden spoon to prop it open if necessary) and leave to cool completely inside. This will take a few hours.

To assemble, place one meringue on your serving plate and spread ½ of the caramel sauce over it. You’ll need to be very gentle so you don’t crush the meringue. Spoon 1/3 of the whipped cream on top of the caramel and spread. Top with a second meringue, then caramel, then cream. Finally add the third meringue, spread the remaining cream and sprinkle the chopped peanut praline over the top.

Salted Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar
4 tbsp water
55 g butter
100mL cream

½ tsp fine sea salt

Add sugar and water in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to high, every so often, swirl the pot to keep mixture moving, but do not stir. The mixture will then start turning a nice caramel colour, when this happens, remove from the heat and add the butter, salt and cream. Whisk to combine, set aside to cool.

Peanut Praline

¾ cup raw peanuts

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

¼ tsp salt

Melt butter and sugar in a frypan and stir until the sugar dissolves into the butter. Add the salt and stir through, too. Add the peanuts and stir to cover in the sugar mixture. Leave to toast for 2 minutes or so, then toss to toast the other side of the nuts. When the mixture smells toasty and nutty, spread out onto a lined baking tray and leave to cool and harden.
Break up/cut into smaller pieces to put on top.

 
 
 

Christmas in July - Chocolate Peppermint Coquito

As part of Christmas in July, Lance and I offered a mulled cider that we served as people arrived. A nice warm mug of spicy deliciousness welcoming them in from the cold. Stay tuned for that recipe! Then with dessert I served this chocolate peppermint coquito and my sister in law made egg-nog. Traditional Puerto Rican coquito is sort of a rummy coconut egg-nog. This chocolate version is barely adapted from Always Order Dessert's recipe for a chocolate coquito. I made mine minty as peppermint is such a "Christmas" flavour and it's impossible to find candy canes this time of year. They would make awesome swizzle sticks if you make this for your December Christmas. You could use Creme de Menthe instead of a peppermint extract but it would add extra sweetness and it would be the only reason for me buying a whole bottle of Creme de Menthe. The only other change is that I used unsweetened coconut cream instead of the sweetened version, I don't really drink super-sweet drinks.

The end result is a sort of more grown-up version of a peppermint Baileys. Perfect for sipping on the rocks and dunking your gingerbread into. I served them in cute little red shot glasses to add to the festivities (and take away from dishes).

This makes a little over a litre and lasts in the fridge for around 2 weeks.

Chocolate Peppermint Coquito

1 can coconut milk
100g dark chocolate (I used Lindt 85%)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can coconut cream
2 cups rum (I used Havana Club Anejo)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small pot, add the coconut milk and roughly chopped dark chocolate and place over a low heat. Stir to melt the chocolate and form a ganache. When completely amalgamated, set aside to cool to room temperature.

When cool, place the coconut cream, sweetened condensed milk and rum in the blender, blend to combine. Add the chocolate ganache and vanilla extract. Blend well to combine. Add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, mix then taste to see if it needs extra.

Pour into glass bottles with lids (like leftover rum bottles), add a cinnamon stick and pop in the fridge until it's really cold. Serve dusted with cinnamon if you'd like.

Christmas in July - Roast Pork and Apple Sauce

This is my go-to way to cook a roast pork. The spices and herbs might get mixed up a little bit (you'll maybe recognise the sage and cider from my cider braised pork), but the method is always the same. It guarantees a moist meat, crispy crackling and it makes it's own sauce all in the one roasting pan! How perfect is that?

A pork like this will easily feed around 10 people with sides.

Roast Pork and Apple Sauce

approx 4kg pork leg

1 tbsp + 1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp smokey paprika
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 brown onions, diced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and squashed
330mL apple cider

Preheat the oven to 150C. Cut through the skin and into the fat of the pork and rub with the vinegar and 1 tsp salt deep into the cuts. Combine the remaining salt, sage and paprika. Rub all over the rest of the pork.

Mix the diced apples and onions together in the base of a large roasting pan. Add the garlic cloves. Gently place the pork roast, skin side up, on top of the apple mix. Pour the cider into the base of the pan.

Roast for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 120C, cover with foil and return to the oven for another 2 hours.

Remove from the oven and take off the foil. Turn the oven up to 200C. If the meat has collapsed in such a way as to submerge the skin, turn upright and place back in the oven, uncovered, so the skin will crispy up and turn into crackling. About 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, put the pork on a plate to rest. Meanwhile, use a fork to mash the apple and onion together into an apple sauce. Put this into a serving platter. Carve the pork, and serve!

Party Inspiration - Christmas in July

I love Christmas. So much. And I love all of the food traditions that go with it. The seafood and trifle and biscuits and BBQ roasts and every type of salad under the sun. Sun being the operative word. Growing up on American and British tv and movies and seeing snuggly winter Christmases makes you yearn just a little bit for a roaring fire and eggnog and all hot foods. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas! I was blessed enough to spend a Christmas in Germany on a high school exchange, and I was in New York City one year for the unveiling of the Macy’s and Saks’ Christmas displays and there really is something special and all-together more “Christmassy” about a winter Christmas. I would never give up our summer Christmases for the world…but that doesn’t mean I can’t have both. Whenever I can, I host or attend a Christmas in July party and get all winter-festive!

Recently I hosted a Christmas in July Party with the same friends that have a normal Christmas party. Everyone volunteers to bring a dish, the house gets decorated and we eat all of the traditional winter Christmas foods we grew up seeing on tv.

Given that it’s only for a day, not a season, I kept the decorations to a minimum. My least favourite chore of all time it taking down the Christmas tree, so there’s no way I’m doing it twice in one year! We had mulled cider and egg nog and a chocolate peppermint version of the Puerto Rican Coquito. There was roasted meats and vegetables. There was bonbons and santa brownies and a whole bunch of Christmas spirit. And it was such a great night. Lance even wrapped up some “re-gift’ presents so everyone received something from “Santa”.

 

Over the coming days, I’ll post recipes of the dishes that I contributed to the party, but in the meantime, here are some photos to whet your appetite and give you ideas if you were considering hosting your own Christmas in July.

To start with, there is gingerbread. This for me is still the ultimate gingerbread recipe, which Lance used to build a whole castle.

And coming:

Roast Pork with Apple Sauce

Cloudy Mulled Apple Cider

Chocolate Peppermint Coquito

Chocolate Salted Caramel Pavlova

Have you ever been to a Christmas in July party? What was your favourite winter tradition in it?