Easy Pavlova Recipe With Berries And Cream

If you’ve never had pavlova before, it’s a dessert made of puffed meringue-like shells, baked so the edges are crispy and airy and literally melt in your mouth, and the centers are pillowy-soft and chewy, almost like a marshmallow.

A little “nest” in the center is traditionally filled with whipped cream and topped with fresh fruit, but is a canvas open to creativity. They’re simple to make, yet look sophisticated and impressive, perfect for Valentine’s Day! Let me show you how easy they are to make. You’ll need 4 egg whites. I don’t care how good of an egg-cracker you are, this is the time to crack each egg individually and add them to your mixing bowl one at a time. If you get any yolk in there, your whites will have trouble whipping up.

You’ll beat them just for a minute or two, until soft peaks form, which look like this:

At that point you spoon in sugar and a little cornstarch a little at a time and then continue beating for few minutes until it’s smooth and glossy and holds a peak. It will look like this:

You can make one big pavlova, like a giant pie you slice into wedges, but I prefer to make mini, individual ones. They’re absolutely adorable for one thing, and easier to eat, in my opinion. You can spoon mounds of the egg mixture and spread them out with a spoon, or do as I do and put the mixture in a piping bag. It makes it really easy to pipe round circles. If you want to make them uniform size, use something like a mason jar as a stencil and draw circles on parchment with a pencil.

Flip the parchment over and then pipe around the circles, making a flat base and then a round layer or two around the outside edge, like this:

Then use a spoon to gently smooth out a little nest in a middle.

I’ve left a few of mine piped, and I’ve smoothed out the edges on some so you can see the difference. It really doesn’t matter, just personal preference! They’ll bake at a fairly low temperature for a little less than an hour, and then they need to sit in the oven and cool slowly. They puff up a little while baking and then as they cool you’ll see some cracking, which is totally normal.

After they’re cooled completely, you can fill the centers with sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Honestly any kind of fruit is fantastic here so use whatever is in season. Fresh peaches and other stone fruits, berries, kiwi and mango and tropical fruits, pomegranate, you name it. If you want to add a little decadence, top with a little chocolate ganache, too. How gorgeous is that?

Another really amazing combo is filling them with my favorite Strawberry Whipped Cream, which you can find in this post here, and then topping with fresh strawberries and a chocolate drizzle.

Whatever you do, you’ll want to know that the pavlova shells themselves are very sweet, so you’ll want to compensate by making your whipped cream a little less sweet than you normally would, and keeping your fruit unsweetened. It’s tempting to mix fruit with sugar, like you would for berry shortcake, or pouring over a sweet berry sauce, but I’ve found I really prefer a barely-sweetened cream and fresh fruit.

If I drizzle with chocolate, I prefer a nice dark ganache for the same reason.

Then you put it all together and each bite, with the crispy, melt-in-your-mouth shell, the chewy soft center, the billowy cream, and the juicy fruit is PERFECTION. Such a fun dessert to make and eat. One other bonus is that the shells can be made ahead of time and kept in an airtight container for a day or two before you fill them. Here’s an image to pin!

Find more Valentine’s Day ideas right here. For other desserts like this, check out these favorites! Russian Cream with Berries Stuffed Strawberries How to Make a Crepe Cake