When the weather’s as hot as it has been recently, we’re never in the mood for large, heavy meals. It’s been lots of salads, fruit and ice cream recently.
Our strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant and redcurrant bushes have been bountiful over the past couple of weeks, so I’ve used a bowlful of them to make a summer fruit Pavlova which really suits the mood when it comes to dessert.
This recipe uses a Swiss meringue. I created a few, different sized ’rounds’ so a stacked, tapering tower could be formed.
When it came to the fruit, I made a strained coulis or sauce with most of it – and also held some pieces for garnishing. Then simply built the stack of meringue layers sandwiched with cream, coulis and whole fruit.
The combination of crisp yet chewy meringue, rich cream and intense fruit is a real joy – both in appearance and taste. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side doesn’t go amiss either!
Save my summer fruit Pavlova recipe to Pinterest for later!
Summer fruit Pavlova
Ingredients
For the meringue
- 4 egg whites
- 200 g/7oz caster sugar
- pinch of cream of tartar
For the fruit
- 250 g/9oz fresh mixed summer fruit whatever you have: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, bilberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants
- 75 g/2½oz granulated sugar
- 50 ml/1¾fl oz water
To finish
- 300 ml/10½fl oz whipping cream
- 100 g/3½ fresh mixed summer fruit
- fresh mint leaves optional
Instructions
For the meringue
- Preheat the oven to 100ºC/200ºF/Gas mark ½
- Line a large oven tray with baking parchment
- In a heat-proof mixing bowl, gently mix the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar over a simmering saucepan of water (making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water). Keep stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved and there's no graininess
- Remove the mixing bowl from the saucepan and, using an electric or stand mixer, beat on a slow speed rising gradually to a high speed. Continue for about 3-5 minutes until the meringue forms stiff peaks
- Spoon the meringue onto the lined baking sheet, making three graduated circular shapes and a single meringue kiss for the top
- Bake for 1-1½ hours depending on how sticky or hard you want the finished meringue
- When cooked, remove the meringue from the parchment paper (you may need to use a palette knife) and allow to cool completely on a wire rack
For the fruit syrup
- Put the fruit, sugar and water into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring up to the boil and simmer until the fruit has softened - stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar and stop the fruit from sticking. (If you use blackcurrants, you may need to pop them using the back of your spoon)
- Remove from the heat and spoon the mixture into a sieve over a heat-proof bowl or measuring jug
- Push the fruit down through the sieve using the back of your spoon to get as much of the fruit as you can away from the seeds
- Discard the seeds and put the mixture back into the saucepan and simmer for a few minutes to reduce to a lovely syrupy consistency
- Allow to cool completely
To finish
- Beat the whipping cream until thickened and forms peaks. Set aside
- Put the largest meringue round on to a large serving plate (put a little dollop of the cream on to the plate first, to keep the meringue round in place) and top with ⅓ of the whipped cream, ⅓ of the fresh fruit mixture and drizzle with ⅓ of the fruit syrup
- Repeat with the two other circles of meringue (the smallest goes on the top) and finish with the little meringue 'kiss'
- Garnish with the mint leaves, if using
If you have an excess of the fruit syrup, you could freeze it into portions using an ice cube tray
