SMS: Pavlova Peach Melba

Wow! Has it really been 2 weeks since I've posted... Life has kind of been getting in the way. Between traveling, training for my quickly approaching marathon (yikes!), trying to study for my psych exam on Tuesday, and trying to buy a house I've somewhere gotten out of a routine. Regardless, I did bake along for this week's SMS and have made several delicious meals in the past couple days as the hubbs is back. He's now done with rotations and only needs to take his board exams before he's a pharmacist (YAY!). Congrats baby! I'm proud of you! 

Anyway, back to the point of this post.

This week's SMS was hosted by Patty of Birding Blossoms and Baking. Stop by her blog or check out the book for the recipe. I've really found it to be a great book! I was really excited for this pick. Pavlova has been on my "to make" list for quite some time. I had heard great things about it, but always found some excuse not to try it - it's too humid, meringue is hard to make, it'd be easier to take a pan of bars, etc.  

This pick gave me the push I needed to try it out, and I am certainly glad I did! I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of using frozen fruit instead of fresh. Frozen is much cheaper this time of year, and I had some frozen peaches from the end of last summer that needed to be used up anyway. They worked great, except that the slices of peaches didn't quite hold their shape the way true fresh ones would have. Oh well, the taste of these is much better than anything I would have found around here in March anyway.

Both the hubby and I really enjoyed this desert. The edges had a nice crunch that gave way to a fluffy center. The hubby called it "marshmallow-like." The only thing was that the almost 2.5 hour total oven time may have been a little much for him. I kept getting, "is it done yet?" This is what we got when we finally got to peek:

 



I did get the cracks in the top of mine. Not sure if anyone knows how to prevent this? The book said that it may crack while it's cooling. It really wasn't a big deal since we were topping it, but I was just curious. As we were eating it, we were brainstorming with other toppings that could be used. The hubby thinks that blueberries would go good. I'm thinking banana slices and caramel (almost banana-fosters like). Great pick. Wonderful potential for creativity. We definitely enjoyed it here!

Stop by the SMS blog roll to see how the other pavlovas turned out!