BF Stackers

Ingredients:

8 egg whites
450g Golden Caster Sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

400ml whipping or double cream
Jar of morello cherries or a tin of black cherry pie filling
Two tablespoons of Amaretto, cherry brandy or kirsch.
100g toasted flaked almonds
Dark chocolate shaved into curls 

Preheat oven to 220º C. Place a sheet of baking paper on two large baking tray and draw 3 circles roughly 7inches.

Beat your egg whites until they are stiff and add your sugar slowly one tablespoon at a time and beat until stiff peaks form.

Sift the cocoa powder into the meringue and fold through carefully with the vanilla extract and vinegar. The vinegar makes the meringue chewy.

5. Shape the meringue onto the three circles on the baking parchment placed on the baking trays. Smear a little meringue on the corner of each piece of parchment to stick it to the tray. Place meringues into oven and immediately turn temperature down to 120 degrees. Bake for 90 minutes then turn off oven, do not remove meringues until oven is cool.

Drain the cherries into a colander with a bowl underneath it to catch the syrup. Give the cherries a shake to make sure the syrup drains out of them. You will want the cherries quite dry so give them a bit of time to drain.

Pour the cherry syrup and one tablespoon of the booze into a saucepan and over medium heat reduce it down to a honey-like consistency (about 5-10 minutes). If you over-reduce you can add a little bit of water and whisk through to make it more liquid again. Set aside. You don't need to do this if using the cherry pie filling.

Beat the cream until stiff peaks form. With a silicone spatula spread half of the cream over the bottom meringue, place cherries on the cream along with half of the flaked almonds. Sprinkle half of the chocolate shavings over the meringue.

Repeat with the second and third layers. Spread the remaining cream over it along with the cherries, nuts and chocolate shavings. Top with the chocolate curls and a fine dusting of cocoa powder. Dribble the reduced cherry syrup over the entire pavlova or the sauce from the pie filling let down with some of the booze.