Christmas

So I know that this post is a bit late to the party, but Merry Christmas! My family isn’t big on Christmas, but any excuse to cook something sweet. Christmas was simple - eggnog and peppermint pavlova cookies. For the eggnog, I followed the basic recipe. I prefer a thicker drink, so I left the eggnog for a bit more until it stopped being so runny. I will also note that I used less sugar than was recommended because we don’t tend to love extremely sweet dishes either. I’m 17, so I didn’t use any alcohol.

While the eggnog was on the stove, I realised that there were a few leftover egg whites, and so I decided to make pavlovas. Again, I followed the basic recipe until the pavlova was ready to bake. That’s when I figured since this is a Christmas drink, why not make the pavlovas like a candy cane? We’d bought some peppermint extract a few months ago, and I poured a few drops of it into the mix. I made a kind of silly decision to spread the pavlova batter in a layer about 1/2 inch thick across a baking sheet(By the way, I’m not sure what the correct word is here - mix? batter? Lemme know down below). My initial idea was to break it into long shards and serve. However, I decided while baking that it could be a better idea to cut them into little cookie-shaped pavlovas. While the pavlovas were fresh out of the oven, I took a cookie cutter and made 6 cookies. Hot pavlova is still soft, but once it cools, it becomes much harder. I broke the rest of the pavlova into shards and stored all of them in an airtight glass jar.

To make it more aesthetic while serving, I powdered up some of the pavlova shards and used them to rim the glasses. I placed a cube of ice and a cinnamon stick in each glass as well. Then, I used an unused toothbrush to spritz water onto the sides of the glasses before putting them into the freezer for a couple of minutes. I pulled the glasses out and quickly poured in the eggnog, and I served the pavlova cookies on a small platter next to it.

Pavlovas(I modified the recipe slightly for the peppermint pavlovas) - https://simplebites.net/mini-citrus-pavlovas/

Eggnog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukB6v94vyKc