Hear me out, if you´re anything like me and looove chocolatey desserts, salted caramel, salted caramelized popcorn and the perfect balance of sweet and salty in a dessert, this recipe is for you.
Base:
4 egg whites
1 & 1/4 cup sugar (3 dl)
1 ½ tsp cornstarch
1 tsp white vinegar
2 tbsp cacao
A dash of vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
Set the oven to 175°.
Beat the egg whites to a firm foam. Add sugar and continue to beat for about 5 minutes. Add the vinegar, cornstarch, cacao, vanilla extract and salt and stop mixing immediately when everything is combined.
Shape the meringue into 2 bases, on a baking sheet with baking paper.
Place the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and lower the oven heat to 125°. Bake for 1 h - 1 h & 15 min. Allow to cool completely.
While waiting for the pavlova prepare the salted caramel sauce.
Salted caramel sauce:
0.8 cups sugar (2 dl)
50 g butter
0.8 cups whipping cream (2 dl)
1 tsp sea salt
Measure sugar in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan or other heavy-bottomed pan that can withstand high heat.
Melt the sugar carefully on medium heat until it is a light brown & stir a little with a wooden spoon so the sugar melts evenly (this does take some time, be patient). Be careful not to burn. Then remove from the heat.
Add the cream a little at a time and stir quickly while doing so. Add a little bit of butter and mix well before adding more butter. Return to medium heat, add the salt and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir and poke the sugar lumps until all the sugar has dissolved and melted together into a sauce.
Let the sauce cool.
Salted Caramelized Popcorn:
2 liters popcorn, salted (1 popcorn bag)
0.6 cups sugar (1.5 dl)
2 tbsp butter (30 g)
1.5 tsp baking powder
Flake salt
Melt the sugar on medium heat in a pan so that it becomes a golden brown caramel.
Add a little bit of butter at a time and stir quickly to combine it. Then, add the baking powder and whisk.
While the caramel is hot, pour in the popcorn and stire around with a wooden spoon to coat the popcorn with the caramel. Place the caramelized popcorn on a sheet of parchment paper. Spread out the popcorn the best you can with the wooden spoon. Lastly, sprinkle with some flake salt.
Toppings:
2 cups whipping cream (5 dl)
50 g dark chocolate
Maltesers chocolate (Use as much as you like, I used more than half of a normal sized bag)
Whip the whipping cream to a fluffy and a little stiff texture.
Roughly chop the dark chocolate.
Layering
Put some whipping cream on the meringue base. Add some of the chocolate chunks, salted caramelized popcorn, maltesers & salted caramel sauce. Repeat on the second meringue layer by adding the rest of the toppings.
Lastly, sprinkle some sea salt on your meringue cake! Voilà!
