I’m so excited to share this recipe! It’s a new thing for me but something I had SO much fun doing.
This is my first collaborative post done with a fellow photographer, stylist and blogger. I met Alysha a few years ago in my professional life and I immediately thought she was one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. Alysha’s not only a great recipe developer & photographer, she’s also a wedding photographer and world traveler. She has story after story of all the cool places she’s been and I can’t wait to see where she goes next. Don’t we all have someone we live vicariously through for something?
Anyway, Alysha spent a day at my little farm last week to kick off her A-Yo Kitchen Local Project! I can’t believe I was the first to be featured and I’m so honored. I hope you take some time to check out her photos of my chickens and all the beautiful eggs they gift me with daily.
And, because she focused on eggs, we came up with this Pavlova recipe we think you’ll love! The Pavlova recipe is the same on both blogs but we’ve featured different sauces so head on over to Alysha’s blog for an amazing recipe for Strawberry Basil sauce.
A few notes:
• This recipe is VERY susceptible to humidity. If you’re making this on a very humid day you may want to increase the time by 10-15 minutes or so and allow it to cool completely in the oven without opening the door. The door lets in humidity and let’s heat out. If you happen to not bake this recipe quite long enough, it’s still delicious! It just means it will be softer in the middle rather than crispy. I’ll be honest, I love it both ways.
• This recipe is best eaten the same day. The Pavlova will absorb moisture in the air and when you add the sauce, it will begin to soften from that.
- FOR THE PAVLOVA:
- 6 eggs, separated (use those yolks in my favorite custard recipes here)
- ½ tsp of cream of tarter
- 1½ cups super fine sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- FOR THE SAUCE:
- 4 cups of blackberries
- ½ cup of granulated sugar
- 1½ T cornstarch
- 2 T water
- ½ T of minced fresh mint (add once removed from heat)
- FOR THE PAVLOVA:
- If eggs are refrigerated, remove the night prior to make sure they are room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 300°.
- Separate egg whites from yolks.
- (Reserve egg yolks for another recipe that you love.)
- In a large bowl place egg whites, cream of tarter, and salt, and begin beating slow and increase speed, gradually beating in sugar until egg whites for stiff shiny peaks.
- Fold in vanilla.
- On a baking sheet lined with parchment or baking mat, spread egg white mixture into one large round disc or two smaller discs.
- Spread evenly, flattening top, and smoothing the sides.
- Place in oven and immediately reduce heat to 275°.
- Cook for 1 hour and then turn oven off and let sit in oven for up to 2 hours (or until oven is cool to touch). Whatever you do, don't open the oven during the cooking process! It lets in moisture and lets out the heat!
- -
- FOR THE TOPPING:
- For the topping, while your pavlova is cooking, mix the blackberries together with sugar, cornstarch, and water until evenly combined.
- In a pan, cook on stovetop on medium-high heat until berries have begun to cook down, all the sugar has dissolved, and the liquid has started to boil and thicken.
- Remove from heat and stir in minced herbs (this will all thicken as it cools).
- -
- To serve, remove pavlova from parchment and place on plate or serving dish.
- Spoon fruit topping evenly over pavlova.
- Top with option garnishes and serve immediately!
- Now for another great topper, head over to Alysha's blog here.
I also tried a couple more toppings! If you’d like to make a peach topping just replace the blackberries with an equal amount of peaches. Then, mix and match your toppings!
