Mixed Berry Mini Pavlovas for two people! This easy romantic dessert is impressive and so fun to share!
My friend, Christina from Dessert for Two is here to show you Mixed Berry Mini Pavlovas! Like Christina, I enjoy myself a tasty treat, but if I make a full recipe of brownies, it’s Sunny with a 90% chance I’m eating a full recipe of brownies. In the span of an hour.
When Christina and I found each other, I was instantly drawn to the genius of her site: desserts for TWO people, not 12. Making a scaled-down recipe is my only hope for not hovering over a pyrex dish with a spoon at 10pm. I’m also smitten by Christina’s supercalifragilisticness…she whips out a mean moonshine cocktail, is a badass yogi, and also makes tasty Dinners for Two.
I’ll let the expert do the talking now. Welcome, Christina, and thanks for joining us!
– – –
Well well well, what do we have here? It looks like Ms. Julia let a dessert-crazed lady take over her site today. And that crazy lady is me, Christina of the blog Dessert for Two! It’s so nice to be here, friends. I’ve been a fan of Julia’s delicious recipes and beautiful food photos for quite some time. Plus, I’m in awe of her because she’s from one of my favorite places on earth, Lake Tahoe. I want to shred the gnar on the mountain with her someday. (Did I use that phrase right, Julia? Heavens, send help.) < – – – Julia’s Note: yes, yes you did, my dear. Let’s go huck the pallisades.
While most of my dessert creations are pumped with sugar, butter and flour, I took it easy this time around. I piped these cute meringue shells out (but you could also use two spoons instead of a piping bag), and baked them until crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Then, I filled these beauties with whipped cream. Alternately, you could use my recipe for coconut whipped cream). I piled that whipped cream high with fresh berries. I used blackberries and strawberries because they’re my favorite, but feel free to use pomegranate arils, raspberries, cherries, whatever your heart desires!
This recipe makes four mini tarts. If you remember my blog name, desserts that serve two is kinda my bag. But, if you have lots of pavlova eaters to serve, just scale up the recipe. So easy! One egg white makes four two-bite tarts. Scale up accordingly.
Mixed Berry Mini Pavlovas
Ingredients
- 1 cold egg white
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cold heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- splash of vanilla extract
- 1 cup mixed berries washed and chopped
Instructions
- First, make the meringues. Preheat the oven to 200° and have ready a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- In a medium bowl, add the cold egg white and cream of tartar. Beat with an electric mixer until foamy and soft peaks start to form. Then, slowly stream in the granulated sugar while continuing to beat on medium speed. When it has stiff peaks, stop mixing. At this point, you can scrape it into a piping bag. If you’re not using a piping bag, have two spoons ready. Use two spoons (or the piping bag) to make four circles of meringue on the baking sheet. Use a spoon to make a slight divot in each circle to hold the fillings later.
- Bake for 45 minutes, and then turn off oven and let cool for 1 hour. Do not open the oven during the cooling process. The meringues should not appear sticky to the touch, though the insides may be.
- After cooling the meringues, move them to serving platter. Make the whipped cream by beating together the heavy cream and powdered sugar. Add a splash of vanilla when the cream has soft peaks. Divide the whipped cream between the meringue shells. Top with the mixed berries and serve.
So so in love with the “Dessert for two” idea! I always have this problem as it is only me and the hubs. We end up eating dessert forever and ever. Not that I’m really complaining, but I think my waistline may start.
I have never had pavlova, but I need to try this! These are so purdy and fresh looking!
Whee! Yet another favorite combo of my girls! Love both of you! Good job speaking Tahoe–or mountain-ese–or Julia-ese, Tina! And they say that Southerners have some odd sayings (and, for the record, we don’t. It’s just them). So, wait. Is Pavlovas just a fancy name for meringues? Because we would have sounded a lot more fancy making pavlovas for Ma-Ma’s parties instead of meringues (I rarely recall a party of hers without meringues). I feel so informed for the day. Like Ma-Ma used to say: Count each day lost that you do not learn at least one thing'”. I think that means I can now go back to bed. Oh, and total yum! Love these!
I’m not exactly sure the difference between meringues and pavolvas. Wait, let me google it. do do do do do do (enter elevator music). GOT IT! Here’s the dif:
“A meringue is usually a single serve, and crispy all the way through. Pavlova can be single up to party size, has a soft centre and is usually topped with cream and fruit.”
I feel so educated now.
See? Your day is not wasted. You may now go to bed.
Love Pavola! And these mini versions look amazing! Love your photography! 🙂
Yay! So happy to see you here Christina. I want to shred the gnar with both you ladies in Lake Tahoe soon! These are perfect little Pavlovas!
Yeeeeeah! Bloggers retreat in Tahoe! ‘Cept there’s no snow to shred…we need a miracle.
These are adorable! And I love that they give you some berryliciousness in every bite!
Yay! Love seeing Tina over here. With meringues and berries and love! I luuuuurve it.
I want to shred the gnar with you too!! Just let me know when and I’m there! 😉
I’m loving all the unique recipes with these guests posts. I’ve never had pavlova but it’s looks so dreamy!
As soon as winter finally hits, you and the hubs should come up and we can roll around in powder. Way things are looking, we may skip over winter entirely this year 🙁
I just made these for dessert tonight and they were incredible and SO EASY! Thanks for the great treat, I’ll be making them again soon 🙂
These ARE AMAZING! My 5 & 3 year old girls fell in love too! Thank you! Our new favorite dessert!
Thank you! I came across these little things awhile back, but didn’t know what they were. I’ve been looking for them ever since. This makes my whole day! Also, I love the mini servings and what seems to be a much shorter time in the oven. This is a win a million times over!
These will be my New Year’s Eve treat – been looking for them forever, and now after all the holiday food, I want something sweet but not over the top for my husband and me. Am going to make a lemon curd to use the egg yolks. Just the right portion for the two us. Happy New Year and hope you are enjoying a sweet Christmas 2014!
Woop woop! So happy to hear you’re going to make the pavlovas on NYE! I hope you had a great Xmas, and Happy New Year to you, too!
Apologies but i need to ask if thats 200C or 200F…
First time on this site making a recipe and I think it should be clarified that in step 1 that 200° is Fahrenheit not Celsius (which is the temp I set my oven too and was way too high!). I quickly realized that and turned down the temp when I was putting the meringue in the oven.
Otherwise great recipe!