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What’s a Pavlova
A pavlova is a meringue, crisp on the outside, soft and marshmallowy on the inside, topped with whipped cream and fresh seasonal fruit. This is one of my all-time favorite spring desserts. Perfect for Easter and Mother’s Day. Pavlovas can be easily adapted to use fall fruit like figs, poached pears and persimmons, or coffee and chocolate flavors during the winter.
My daughter doesn’t like cake and ice cream, weird huh? But it works out great because I don’t like baking or frosting cakes. I made these palm-sized pavlovas for her recent 6th Birthday instead. She loved them! I have made mini pavlovas about 2 inches wide for wedding desserts and bridal showers and we had them on a summer menu at the restaurant at one point. These individual pavlovas are the perfect light dessert for Easter, Mother’s Day, and The 4th of July. You can also make them into a large pie-sized Pavlova for sharing. Make the meringue shell ahead of time and assembled just before serving.
I like to make mini meringue cookies with any extra. I double the meringue portion of this recipe, make as many meringue shells as I need, and then mix in some other flavorings and make a batch of bite-sized meringue cookies with the rest.
So many possible variations:
The fruit can change with the season. I’ve made Pavlovas with sliced peaches, mixed berries, sliced strawberries, cherries, persimmons, and figs with walnuts and honey. Strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries make a great red-white-and-blue combo for a 4th of July dessert.
You can also play around with different fillings. Whipped cream is traditional. I like my whipped cream just barely sweetened to balance out the sweetness of the meringue and fruit. Lemon curd is also delicious as a filling as is pastry cream and chocolate mousse.
You can flavor the meringue itself with lemon zest as I do here in this recipe. Almond extract, amaretto, vanilla extract, cocoa powder or instant espresso make great variations.
I would love to see the fruit, filling and meringue combinations you come up with! If you make this recipe, please rate it and leave a comment below or #homecooksguide in your instagram post.
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Mixed Berry Pavlovas
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: dessert
- Method: baking
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
For the Meringues
5 egg whites
1 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar)
1 1/4 Tablespoons cornstarch
zest of a 1/4 lemon (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
For the Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1–2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
For the Fruit
2 cups fresh berries or seasonal fruit (If using strawberries, cut and remove stems. If using grapes, halve. If using cherries, remove pits).
2 Tablespoons Honey (or 1 Tablespoon sugar)
Optional Garnishes
Toasted coconut
Chopped nuts
Shaved chocolate
Powdered Sugar
Edible Flower Petals
Mint, thyme, or tarragon
Instructions
To Make the Meringues
Remove eggs from the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature.
In a small mixing bowl, combine sugar, cream of tartar, cornstarch and lemon zest
Preheat oven to 300 F. Line a couple of half sheet pans with parchment paper.
Separate the egg whites and egg yolks. Put the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer or mixing bowl (if using a hand mixer). It is crucial that no yolks break and mix with the egg whites and that the bowl used to whisk the egg whites is completely clean of any grease. Fat will prevent egg whites from forming stiff peaks.
Whisk the whites. Once frothy, begin adding the sugar mix little by little, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Once soft peaks form, add vanilla extract (or other flavoring extracts). Continue whisking until stiff peaks form.
Whip to stiff peaks.
Transfer mixture to a piping bag and pipe out meringue shells to your desired size. Alternatively, you can use a spoon to dollop the mixture out onto the sheet pans and then use the spoon to create an indent in the middle of each mound. Approximately 1/2 cup of meringue mixture will make a nice palm-sized individual pavlova portion and this recipe will make about 6-8 palm-sized shells.
Place meringues in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 200 F. Bake for 40 minutes for small shells, or 1 hour for a large pie sized shell.
Cooked Meringue Shells ready for garnishing.
Let meringues cool completely and then store in an airtight container until ready to use. If you don’t have a good airtight container, store in any container you have and then wrap it completely with plastic wrap. This is especially important if you live in a humid climate. Humidity will make these really sticky as they sit which is not what we’re going for. If this happens, you can preheat the oven to 200 F, put the meringues back in, turn the oven off and let them dry in there for a couple of hours or overnight (but you may lose the marshmallow-like softness of the inside). Meringues will last for a week if stored properly.
To Garnish
Put your cut fruit into a bowl, drizzle with honey (or sprinkle with sugar) and let it sit until it becomes a little saucy.
Whisk cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Grab the meringues you plan to serve and eat, leave any remaining tightly covered for garnishing at a later time. Spread the whipped cream over the meringue shells. Top with fruit. Serve and enjoy.
These are best enjoyed right after garnishing. They do not refrigerate or freeze well. Only garnish the ones you plan on eating.
Equipment
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| Kitchen Aid 6 Qt Stand Mixer |
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| Nordic Ware Half Sheet Pans (2) |
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Meringue is so classic and has a special place in my heart. Made these Pavolovas over the weekend. The recipe came out beyond pretty and tasted absolutley amazing! Can’t wait to make another batch and play around with some filling and topping variations.