Several readers have written in to ask if the thick meringue layer that forms the base of a pavlova can be made ahead of time. The answer as far as I’m aware is no, not really. Thin, crispy layers of meringue of the kind that go into marjolaine or vacherin can be kept for several days if need be, but in general thicker, softer layers don’t keep as well. Still I think we need an Aussie or a Kiwi to weigh in on this and give us a definitive answer. Little help anyone?

Reader Vicki wants to know if she can use stabilized whipped cream for the filling. She also wants to know what the heck whipped cream stabilization is and how it works. Vicki, the answer to your first question is yes (though some purists might complain). As far the second, I’ll need a little space to answer it. You may or may not know about how whipped cream works, a full explanation for that is here. Basically, whipping creates a layer of free fat molecules which coat air bubbles and keep them from popping.
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Oh there’s quite a lot of difference, reader Melanie. Wax paper is basically tissue paper with a wax coating applied to the outside. It’s nowhere near as tough and useful as parchment. Parchment is a thick (or at any rate thick-er) paper that’s been passed through an acid bath to increase its rigidity and give it a hard, smooth, glossy surface that resists just about everything. Most of the time parchment is also coated with silicone to give it extra stick-resistance….

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I used up my blogging time with my youngest, little six-year-old Joan Pastry, who opened up her eyebrow playing at summer camp yesterday. The urgent care clinic got her (literally) glued back together…amazing what we can do nowadays, no? Anyway, trying to get back on track today. Thanks for your patience!

Can we just say “from the English-speaking peoples living south of the equator” and leave it at that? Because lordy, this has been a point of contention between the Aussies and the Kiwis for about 40 years now. I hesitate to dip my toe into these shark infested waters, but what the hey. My tea is strong and my resolve is up. I’m game.

What no one disputes is that pavlova is a sweet named for a ballerina, one Anna Pavlova, a principal dancer in the Imperial Russian Ballet in the last years of the 19th century. In 1905 she left the Imperial Ballet and formed her own company, with whom she toured the world until her death of pneumonia in 1931. During the twenties she toured Australia and New Zealand at least twice. Her skilled and sensational performances engendered honorifics of all kinds, many of them edible.
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Reader Nick wants to know why there’s acid (in the form of vinegar) in the meringue recipe below. An excellent question and one I very recently addressed when I was making angle food cakes a few weeks ago. So instead of putting up another post I’ll just refer you there!…

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Pavlova is little-known here in the States, but it’s the apple pie of Australia and New Zealand. Here’s my version which hews pretty close to the standard (there’s not much room to move where meringue is concerned). Toppings can be all over the board, though fruit is traditional. You’ll need:

8 egg whites, room temperature
pinch salt
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
14 ounces (2 cups) sugar
1 ounce (4 tablespoons) cornstarch
one double recipe Chantilly cream …

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Reader Paul writes:

OK so here I am with three pastry school interns making Boston Cream Pies. One of them asks, “If this is a two-layer sponge cake filled with pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze, why is it called a pie?” My answer: “Durned if I know, but I’ll ask Joe”. So I’m asking.

Hey Paul! That’s a funny question. All I can say is that it’s one of those conundrums that probably has no real answer. There’s no question that in reality Boston cream pie is a cake, a pudding cake to be precise: two layers of sponge enclosing a whipped cream center. Legend has it that Boston cream pie was “invented” by a French pastry chef named Sanzian, an employee of Boston’s famous Parker House Hotel, in 1855. As the story goes he was looking for a way to dress up a business-as-usual English-style cream cake, a confection that had been around in America for about 100 years by that time. His solution was a chocolate glaze, something that would have been trendy then, since melt-able bar chocolate was relatively new. He dubbed it “Boston cream pie.”…

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…the encased meats, which were also a key feature of the vacation. Get up there among all those North Europe-descended yoopers and Wisconsinites and no matter where you go the sausages are outstanding. I forgot how good kielbasa and eggs was for breakfast, or how almost poetic Braunschweiger can be when it’s lovingly smoked. Wow. Even the hot dogs were buttery and delivered in links. That, my friends is good eating. …

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Here’s what my field of vision has looked like for roughly the last ten days. A tight line, a clear northern lake, lots of trees, eagles overhead…ahhh. I’m pretty much in paradise wherever they have bait shops that look like this:…

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Holy moly. I take a week off to fish and pastry mania erupts. One day I’m on a walleye junket, the next I discover that a lust for deep fried croissant dough has encircled the globe. Cronuts are what they are. And if you haven’t heard of them, well, you must be living on a bass boat on Lake Escanaba.

Honestly I probably wouldn’t have heard much about them had I not received a score of emails this past week from readers wanting to attempt them. It seems that their inventor, one Dominique Ansel in Lower Manhattan, has stated that while they are made from croissant dough, the dough isn’t made with butter, since butter’s low melt point causes the layers to slide apart during frying.
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