I’m so excited about this new dessert that I want to share the recipe so that others can try it! It’s delicious, easy to make and beautiful to look at! It’s called a Pavlova, and I discovered it when I was invited to a holiday party that was focused on international food and wine. My assignment was to bring a bottle of wine and a dessert from New Zealand. The wine was easy because I love New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, so I picked up a bottle of my favorite Sauvignon Blanc from the Kim Crawford Vineyard. The dessert was a bit more challenging; I had no idea what New Zealanders enjoy for dessert.

I did a little research and discovered the Pavlova. A Pavlova is a dessert made with a meringue base, covered with about an inch of whipped cream and topped with the fresh fruit of your choice. I chose strawberries, raspberries, and kiwi in keeping with the season. It has to be made just before serving so I made the meringue and whipped the cream, cut up the strawberries and kiwi ahead of time and packed it up to take to the party to assemble at dessert time. It was easy to put together, and looked great! Everyone loved it!

Here’s my recipe for Pavlova, which serves 8-10 people.

1/2 cup egg whites at room temperature (from about 4 eggs)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons brown sugar

12 strawberries, trimmed and sliced

2 kiwi fruit, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in a mixer until foamy. Add sugar, cornstarch, vinegar and vanilla and whip until stiff and glossy, about 6-8 minutes more. On a sheet pan, trace a 9-inch circle on a piece of parchment paper. Flip paper so that you can see the circle and pile the meringue in to the circle. Smooth top, without losing the loft of the meringue. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 300 degrees. Bake 45 minutes more. Turn off the oven, prop the door open and leave in the oven until it is cool.

Whip the cream with the brown sugar and slather it on top of the meringue. Top with fresh fruit and serve. Bon Appetit! If you’re at our Chesterfield NH Inn on New Year’s Eve, we’re going to make individual Pavlovas for our special New Year’s Eve dessert. I bet they’ll be great with champagne!

White Wine

One of the best parts of my job as Innkeeper of the Chesterfield Inn is choosing the wines featured on our wine list! I’ve worked on the wine list for years, as it evolves and changes with trends and our guests’ taste. People who stay and dine with us tell me about wines, I taste wines and read about wines, and the list evolves!

In the last year, we have begun a program that features 4 or 5 wines each month. I’m particularly taken with our Summer Wine Specials, which are all from New Zealand and Australia, and I’d like to tell you about them. We have two  red wines. The first is a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Barossa Valley in Australia called The Cover Drive from Jim Barry. Jim Barry is a small, quality oriented winery, and this wine is the result of careful wine making. The flavor is dense with rich fruit and the wine has a wonderful nose. The other red wine that we are featuring is from Yalumba Vineyards, also in Barossa, and is a Shiraz/Viognier blend. The Shiraz is blended with Viognier to bring out the color and aroma. The result is a light, fruity wine, with jammy flavors.

For white wines, we have an Un-oaked Chardonnay from Tohu, a vineyard in New Zealand. This is a full bodied chardonnay without the heaviness of oak, with peachy and lemon overtones. Of course, we must have a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the mix, and the Sauvignon Blanc is Harbor Town, from Marlborough. The wine is made by Alan Scott from some of New Zealand’s finest Sauvignon Blanc vineyards. It has a rich , intense flavor. Then we have a Reisling from Yalumba Vineyard, which is dry with lush tropical friut overtones. This wine is a perennial award winner with a host of food pairing possibilities.

These wines are all delicious. We’d love to share them with you-maybe out on the terrace at sunset?