Small Batch Mini Pavlovas with Berries
I’ve been dying to try a pavlova for years! Today we’re making a small batch of mini pavlovas filled with a rich whipped cream and topped with fresh berries. This recipe is crazy easy to make, fancy as heck, and super simple to customize with your favorite flavors. Let’s dive in!
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What Is Pavlova?
A pavlova is a meringue that has a crisp exterior, but a soft, tender interior. Typically, a pavlova is filled with whipped cream or fruit curd, or even both! Then this delicate dessert is topped with fresh fruit.
The story goes that this dessert was created for Anna Pavlova, a Russian ballerina. It’s a hotly debated issue because both Australia and New Zealand claim to be the birthplace of the pavlova.
Make It Mini
Pavlova is a light, delicate dessert that needs to be served immediately. While you can prep the elements a day or two in advance, once you put it all together, you need to serve the pavlova within 3 hours to maintain the proper texture.
So if you don’t want to serve a giant pavlova, these mini pavlovas are the perfect solution! This small batch recipe makes about five 4 inch mini pavlovas. Now you can serve this special dessert to your small party and not be worried about storing leftovers!
How to Make Mini Pavlovas
I highly recommend drawing a template on the back of your parchment paper to make it easy to pipe your mini pavlovas. Mine are 4 inches, but if you do about 3 ½ inches, you could probably get 6 out of this batch.
It’s also important that you pipe onto parchment paper. Using a silicone mat will not produce the best results. Basically we want to dry out our mini pavlovas during the baking process. Silicone mats or aluminum foil will trap moisture and affect the texture of the finished dessert.
Why Is The Texture Different?
This recipe may look a lot like a normal meringue cookie, but the texture is actually a bit different. Folding in lemon juice and cornstarch is what gives our mini pavlovas that soft, marshmallowy texture.
Top Tips for Meringue
- Wipe your bowl and whisk with a bit of vinegar to remove any residual fat or grease.
- Separate your egg whites one at a time into a small bowl before adding them to your big bowl. This is to prevent any stray yolk from ruining the whole batch!
- Acid (like cream of tartar or lemon juice) can help stabilize your egg whites.
- Whip your eggs at a medium speed for longer to create a more stable meringue and minimize the risk of over whipping.
Related Reading: All About Meringue: Covering the Basics
Leftover Egg Yolks
Since you’ve got 3 leftover egg yolks, I suggest making my mango curd or a half batch of the lemon curd from my lemon meringue pie recipe. Both would make delicious additions to these mini pavlovas!
Whipped Cream With Pudding Mix
You’ve got options here. You could always whip up some cream without stabilizers, as long as you are serving immediately. Or you could use my recipe for stabilized whipped cream with gelatin. This option gives the classic flavor of whipped cream, but it can actually hold up a few days in the fridge.
But for these mini pavlovas, I used 2 tablespoons of instant vanilla pudding mix to stabilize my whipped cream. This made my whipped cream super thick, yet still light. It wasn’t very sweet at all and had a very rich flavor. I loved it! It would also make a great fruit dip all by itself.
Whipped Cream Modifications
If you’d prefer a lighter flavor, or want a sweeter whipped cream, I would use a tablespoon each of pudding mix and powdered sugar. This is truly up to your personal preference.
Another fun way to modify this recipe is swapping out the pudding mix flavor. I imagine using a strawberry mix would be delicious! Or any other flavor really. If you try this, you’ll have to let me know what you thought!
Related Reading: Mixed Berry Buckle
Watch It All Come Together
Look, I’m a visual learner, so I put together this video to show you each step of this recipe, including how I assemble the mini pavlovas!
Once the pavlova nests are cool, spoon or pipe in your whipped cream filling. Then pile on your freshly sliced berries! You can use any fruit you want. Just pile it all on! You really can’t mess this up. I promise.
How Do You Eat Pavlova?
Y’all. I do not know the right way to eat a pavlova. And I didn’t even realize this until I finished putting the fruit on. Do you know the right way? Leave a comment and help a lady out.
I figured it was either, shove it in my pie hole, or use a spoon or a fork. A fork seemed like the best option for eating in public… or a YouTube video. It’s a tiny bit messy, but overall, the fork worked great. But I still don’t know if that’s the way to go…
Enjoy!
I’m so excited for you to try this small batch recipe for mini pavlovas!! If you try this recipe, you’ve got to tell me all about it. I want to know what type of whipped cream you used and which juicy fruits topped it all off!
Did you love this recipe? I hope so! If you did, you should definitely consider subscribing to the Bakes & Blunders email list. You’ll get access to my Resource Library, receive baking tips each month, and you’ll never miss a recipe!
Small Batch Mini Pavlovas with Berries
Ingredients
Mini Pavlovas
- 3 egg whites room temperature
- 6 oz sugar
- 3/4 tsp lemon juice
- 3/4 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cornstarch
Whipped Cream
- 8 fl oz heavy cream
- 2 Tbsps vanilla pudding mix
Toppings
- 1- 2 cups fresh berries
Instructions
Mini Pavlovas
- Preheat the oven to 215°F. Draw 3 ½- 4 inch circles on the back of a piece of parchment paper. Line baking sheet with the paper. Fit a 16 inch piping bag with a piping tip. I used a closed star tip. Set aside.
- Whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar one spoonful at a time while you continue to whip the egg whites on a medium speed. Once all of the sugar has been added, bump the speed up to a medium- high speed and whip until you have stiff peaks. This could take 10- 20 minutes.
- Gently fold in the lemon juice and vanilla with a thin spatula or metal spoon. Sift the cornstarch over the mixture and fold in carefully until combined.
- Fill your prepared piping bag with the meringue. Pipe your pavlovas onto your baking sheet with the parchment paper. Start in the center of the circle and pipe a swirl going outwards. When you are just shy of the edge of the circle template, bring the meringue up and pipe an edge so that they have space for the filling.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn off the oven and allow the pavlovas to cool in the oven for 3- 4 hours.
Whipped Cream
- Place the cream in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until the mixture just begins to thicken. Add a tablespoon of pudding mix and beat until well combined. Add the second tablespoon of pudding mix and beat until thick and the beaters are leaving tracks in the cream.
- Scrape the bowl down and whisk by hand until the whipped cream is at your preferred consistency.
Assembly
- Slice any large fruits and set aside. Pipe or spoon whipped cream into the center of the pavlovas. Top with a pile of fresh berries.
Notes
- Depending on how you pipe them, you may get up to 6 pavlovas.
- You can double this recipe if necessary.
- Pavlovas should be served within 3 hours of filling.
- To store unfilled pavlovas, place in an air tight container between layers of wax paper to prevent them sticking to each other.
My Favorite Products For This Recipe
Colleen
Hi there! I’m Colleen, a novice baker with a passion for learning and improving my bakes… and blunders. On Bakes and Blunders, you can find all sorts of tasty recipes that range in difficulty, but most importantly, I’ll try to explain the reason behind important steps. If you know why a recipe works, you can tweak and adapt it to suit your unique tastes, and you’ll be able to reliably produce some very delicious treats. If you love baking and want to expand and grow your skills, or if you are a casual baker and just need some pointers, my blog is right up your alley! Join me on my baking journey and we’ll learn how to make more impressive recipes together.
2 Comments
Kelly
Love the suggestions to make this meringue chewy! Pavlovas are perfect for summer!
Colleen
I love how light they are!