Full question
Dear Nigella, I am planning to make the Lemon Pavlova a day in advance. I will be halving the recipe and making 3 smaller meringue bases. How long would I cook the meringues and would I be able to like to leave them in a closed oven overnight or will I have to store them in an airtight container? Thank you!
Our answer
Nigella's Lemon Pavlova (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) has a meringue base that is flavoured with lemon zest. The meringue is usually made with 6 egg whites. If you use a half quantity and make 3 bases then you will have approximately one egg white per base. The best comparison we have for baking times is Nigella's Mini Pavlovas, which uses just under half of an egg white per meringue. The large pavlova meringue takes 1 hour to cook and the mini pavlova meringues take 30 minutes.
We suspect that the smaller lemon pavlova meringues would take approximately 40 minutes to bake at 150c/130c Fan/300F and you would need to preheat the oven to 180c/160c Fan/350F first, then turn the oven down when the meringue goes into the oven to bake. However, as we have not tried the meringues in this size we are unable to guarnatee the results. If you wish to leave the meringues in a closed oven overnight after baking then leave the oven door slightly ajar until it has cooled, close it when cool and leave the meringues overnight (and don't forget to remove them before turning on the oven again!). Also note that meringues are best made during dry weather, if the weather is humid or damp, or if you have a very steamy kitchen, then the meringues may become slightly sticky.
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