Mixed Berry Pavlova

A divine recipe from Ina Garten.  Beautiful to serve and delightful to eat.

Meringue:
6 large egg whites at room temperature
½ t. cream of tartar
Pinch salt
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ T. cornstarch
1 ½ t. vanilla extract

Cream:
1 pint cold heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
1 t. vanilla

Berries:
1 (14 oz.) pkg. Birds Eye frozen mixed berries, partially thawed (You could also use fresh raspberries, blueberries and sliced strawberries)
½ cup seedless raspberry jam

Place rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 275°. Draw a 10-inch circle on a sheet of parchment paper. Flip it over and place on a baking tray. (That way you don’t get pencil on the meringue)Place the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix sugar and cornstarch. Beat the egg whites on medium speed until egg whites are firm and the egg white bubbles are very small and uniform. Slowly add the sugar and cornstarch with the mixer running. Beat until it makes firm, shiny peaks. Add vanilla.

Spoon the meringue onto the middle of the parchment and smooth out to fill the circle. Mound it up on the outside edge like a nest so that it is easier to fill. Bake at 275° for 70 minutes maybe even 75. Remove from the oven. Meringue will be lightly browned.

While this is cooking, put the raspberry jam in a pan on the stove on medium to warm and melt. Remove from heat. Whip the cream, then add the sugar and vanilla, whip until firm.

Place meringue on a plate and spread the top with whipped cream. Spoon on the berries. Spoon warm raspberry jam over it all and serve. I have seen it served cut in wedges but I like to serve it with a serving spoon.

Serves 12.

One of the tricky parts is to get the meringue onto a serving plate without it falling apart. Stacie had a great suggestion: place two pieces of parchment in the baking tray, overlapping about ½ inch in the middle. When the meringue is baked, loosen it from the paper and slide the two pieces out from either side. Great idea.  (I tried it that way and it is brilliant!  I put the meringue on the serving plate, slid a flat spatula under it to loosen it, slipped out the parchment and there it was.)

You can also make mini pavlovas by piping the meringue onto parchment in 2-inch rounds. Bake at 300° for 25 minutes.

It is beautiful done with fresh fruit when fresh fruit is in season and more reasonably priced.

I just discovered heavy cream a few months ago. It has the same calories as regular cream but is a bit more expensive. It will hold up for a longer period of time and you can also pipe it with a star tube. I love it's versatility.