Christmas Baking: Chocolate and Cinnamon Swirl Pavlova

I just couldn't resist posting just one more Christmas baking recipe. Mainly because this one is a doosy! It's got everything, cinnamon spice, chocolate and what's an Aussie Christmas without cherries and a good pav. I made these as individual meringues for easy of serving. You could also bake these and give them as gifts wrapped in cellophane, especially if everyone is too stuffed after Christmas lunch to eat them!


Individual Chocolate and Cinnamon Swirl Pavlovas with Cherries
Makes 6 large meringues

4-5 organic egg whites weighing 150g
300g organic caster sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1tbps best organic dutch coco
300ml cream
dash of vanilla extract
20 cherries

Preheat your oven to 200C. Whip your egg whites and salt till stiff peak stage. Place your sugar into a baking tray and into the oven until the sugar it hot to the touch. Turn the oven down to 150C. Add the hot sugar to the egg whites and whip until the mixture  is thick, glossy and has cooled down. Mix the cinnamon and coco together in a separate small bowl then add to the egg whites and sugar. Carefully fold the coco and cinnamon into the egg whites, leaving a nice swirl patten in the mixture. Place the egg mixture onto a lined baking tray. (a nice tip to keep the baking paper flat is to dab a little meringue mix onto the tray to stick the paper to it). Make sure your meringues are nice and peaked to get those nice crunchy bits! Bake at 150C for about an hour or until they are puffed up and crunchy on top and still a little goo-y on the inside. Leave to cool in the oven overnight.
To dress: whip the cream with a little vanilla then pile the cream and vanilla on top each meringue and serve immediately.