Reduced-sugar pavlova holds up
Delicate-looking meringue shells are hardy dessert fare
Pavlovas are dreamy. For the uninitiated, a pavlova (named after the famed ballerina’s fluffy tutu) is essentially a meringue shell baked at low heat until the outside is barely golden crisp, but the inside remains soft and billowy, like a creamy marshmallow. The shell then is typically filled with whipped cream, custard or fruit compote.
And, as mentioned, the result is a dream-come-true. Pavlovas are a splendid choice for entertaining, because contrary to what we might think of a delicate meringue, these guys are pretty hardy, and you can make them a day or two in advance. Just be sure to keep them in an airtight container so that they don’t absorb ambient air moisture and lose their delightful crisp texture, and top just before serving.
As you probably know, meringues are primarily two ingredients: egg whites and sugar. In this good cop/bad cop pairing, sugar is definitely the bad cop, while egg whites are considered downright health food by many folks who look like they know what they are talking about at the gym. (They aren’t wrong, by the way, one egg white has 5 grams of protein, at only 25 calories and no fat.) The sugar is what gives the pavlovas their luscious interior. So I wondered:
Just how low could I go on the sugar?
The answer: quite low. A typical pavlova recipe might have a ratio of cup of sugar per egg white. I found that I could cut the sugar in half with no noticeable impact on texture and taste. So I kept testing and reducing the sugar. And the very lowest that yielded a reasonable result was a ratio of 2 teaspoons of sugar per egg white, or one-eighth the typical amount of sugar.
At that level of sugar, the pavlova becomes less flowy, and more airy and crisp, almost styrofoam-y. Most of us felt like a little extra sugar was worth the nutritional profile impact, and so I’ll share that version — with 4 teaspoons of sugar per egg white, or cup sugar to 3 egg whites as the recipe is written. Still, a dessert victory if you ask me.