A lot from a little: Mixed Berry Pavlova

Pavlova recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, Berry Filling recipe from my noggin.

Most folks who know me, and have eaten from my kitchen, would probably describe me as a baker first, and a cook second. And I don't disagree. I express my love for others (and often for myself) with food. And what's more full of love than something sweet, I ask you?

I cooked all the time with my mom, and on my own, growing up, and not just limited to sweets. But as I got older and my love of creating with food and working in the kitchen started to develop in earnest, I was drawn to baking. I love the precision and orderly instructions of baking. The carefulness and attention to detail required to get the chemistry just right. Tuning in to the minute and the monotonous helps to tune out the mundane and mediocre.

Over the past couple years, a fellow baker friend and I have been gathering regularly (pandemic notwithstanding) to celebrate our mutual love of baking, and our close friendship, by creating and indulging in all manner of confections and concoctions. We designate some days as skill building days, focusing on pushing ourselves into new areas and new techniques, rising to self-issued challenges to create breads and pastries and jams and fillings. Once we've honed our skills a bit, we put it into practice with dinner parties and afternoon hangouts with friends culminating in a truly extra holiday party that gave me life in December of 2019.

Then the pandemic happened, and we stopped these get togethers and I was left to do my own baking. It's not quite as much fun alone, but I'm still managing to push myself, try new things and find some new favorite dessert delicacies.

I first learned of the wonder that is pavlova watching Mary Berry make it in a GBBO Masters Class episode. I was immediately captivated, because the pillowy white cloud of meringue looked almost magical and the combination with fresh berries and fresh whipped cream struck me as light and punchy and delightfully summery.

And let me tell you, I was not disappointed.

Like a lot of baking, this is all about chemistry. But I was terrible at Chemistry (awful awful), so I just like to consider it magic. It's more fun that way. Egg whites, when combined with sugar and cornstarch and a bit of acid, whip up to glossy beautifully stiff peaks. Baked long and low, they become a textural fantasy-land, developing three separate textures in each bite. The outside shell is crisp and almost crackery, the bottoms develop just the faintest caramel-y chew and the middles are just sort of delightfully marshmallow-y. Not bad at all for just five ingredients.

While they do have a little bit of sweetness from the sugar, pavlova isn't something you really eat on it's own. (Although you can, and I did.) Pavlova is better on a team - with a fruit topping and some fresh cream to bring brightness and richness to the textural foundation.

I went with a mixed berry topping of blueberries and strawberries and a sugar-and-vanilla sweetened fresh whipped cream. Mint leaf for optional and optimal fanciness.

PREPARATION NOTES

• Acid: I didn't feel like buying cream of tartar, because I know it would just sit in the cabinet feeling unused and sad. So, I went the vinegar route as the recipe mentions as an option, using apple cider vinegar which gave the faintest musky/tangy backnote to the pavlova, which I adored. I also used ACV in the berry filling to tie the flavor through the dessert.

• Because I went the vinegar route, my pavlova wasn't quite as firm as it should have been, so the piping didn't hold its ridges and they spread in the oven a bit. Not quite as picture perfect as I hoped, but just as delicious.

• I also didn't feel like buying superfine sugar, so I pulsed some regular granulated sugar in a food processor for a few seconds to make it finer.

• I made the recipe in the proportions mentioned, but made mini pavlovas instead of one big one. I got 6 out of the batch.

• For the whipped cream, I whipped up 1 C of heavy cream with a splash of vanilla and a sprinkle of sugar.

MIXED BERRY FILLING

I took terrible notes, so here's my best recollection.

• 1 cup strawberries, stemmed, hulled and sliced

• 1 cup blueberries

• 1 T Apple Cider Vinegar

• 1 T Balsamic Vinegar

• 2T granulated sugar

• 2T brown sugar

• Zest of 1 Lemon

• Sprig of Mint

1. Combine all of ingredients in a pan over medium heat and stir to mix and dissolve the sugar.

2. Cook until fruit releases its liquid and the blueberries start to burst.

3. Cook for 1-2 minutes more to break down the fruit a bit, then remove from the heat, cover and let cool.

4. Once cool, remove the mint leaves and discard. Refrigerate berry mixture until ready to use on your pavlova.

Rating: 5/5

Will I Make It Again?: Yeppers