Christmas Log - Another Type of Pavlova with Summer Berries and Mascapone Cream

Merry Christmas everyone! 

First of all, it's a mad cooking season... We are doing the Christmas lunch this year and it's all go go go...

Well, a lot to write about, the pork, turkey and the others, but because I'm more excited about making sweet things, my super achievement this year was the traditional plum pudding, and the second dessert, the Christmas log.

The very traditional Aussie Christmas Dinner (well, it's usually a lunch), will usually have turkey, ham and plum pudding, but also, the very beloved pavlova.  It's summer in the southern continent anyway.

I wasn't about to make another Pavlova (I made one for Church's Christmas Lunch) and was more interested in making a Yule Log, the recipe from Emmanuel Mollois, but when hubby saw Karen Matini's Pavlova Roll on Better Homes & Gardens, he said, I want to have that for Christmas.

So my Christmas Log was adapted from Karen Matini.  The link will bring you to the video of Karen's show on Better Homes & Gardens.  Certainly watching her doing it helps a lot to recreate this lovely log.

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essense
175g caster sugar

Filling
250g mascapone cream
150g thickened cream
1 tbsp marsala
handful of toasted almond flakes

Icing sugar
Dessicated Coconut

Berry Salad
punet of strawberries
punet of blueberries.
1.5 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp caster sugar

Make the meringue as instructed in the video, it only takes a couple of minutes, the oven temperature is 165C, and I only baked for 15 minutes.

Lay a sheet of grease proof baking paper over the clean tea towel and sprinkle with dessicated coconut and icing sugar, generously.
Let meringue cool for at least 5 minutes.

Gently flip over the meringue (Karen did it with ease in the video, I did have hubby's help...) and remove the baking paper (the baking paper does need to be greased properly before the meringue was added to it, otherwise it's hard to remove)
Karen used goat's yoghurt to blend in with mascapone, I prefer the whipped cream as it's an everyday item in our fridge, and no need to go out and hunt it down somewhere.  Whip cream till soft peak, add marsala and fold in mascapone.

Spread onto the meringue sheet, and sprinkle on the toasted almond flakes - just to give the soft light dessert a bit of crunch.

I made the log in the morning, and let it sit in the fridge till serving after 2pm, but half an hour before serving, I sliced up the strawberry and marinated it in the sugar and lemon juice.  It's a little bit risky for us to use the balsamic and basil with the children as per Karen's recipe.

It's a pretty log, and very light and fruity.  Full of summer flavour. 

Maybe one year, we will go to the northern hemisphere and experience the White Christmas?