My delicious Summer Berry Pavlova! A requested recipe passed down through the generations...

There is something so gorgeously decadent about pavlova isn’t there?

That crunchy cloud of meringue, lashings of cream and bursts of freshness from the berries - it’s heaven in a bowl!

I know it requires a little step out of our comfort zone, but it is so worth it, and I assure you it’s not as scary to cook meringue as you think!

The trick is to pour the sugar in really, really slowly. Mum used to tell me to walk away between spoonfuls to complete a little task, such as clearing a shelf of the dishwasher or emptying the sink! 

Let’s get baking!

Ingredients

6 large egg whites

300g caster sugar

1 pinch of sea salt

400g strawberries / 200g strawberries mixed with 200g raspberries

100g blueberries

200ml double cream

200ml natural yoghurt

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste / half a vanilla pod's seeds

A couple of sprigs of mint

Method

If using an electric oven, preheat to 140C.

Put the egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk until firm peaks.

Very gradually add the sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking well in between each spoonful, along with the pinch of salt. Don’t rush this stage! Gus always helps me do this job spooning the sugar in.

Line two baking trays with baking paper and divide the mixture in two. You want the meringue to cover a circle about 25cm in diameter, I like to draw around a plate onto the baking paper to guide me.

Place into the oven at 140C to bake for 1 hour.

If using an Aga I use the warming oven and cook for closer to 2 hours.

Halve or quarter the strawberries and prepare the rest of your berry mixture. Whip the cream with the sugar until it forms soft peaks, stir in the yoghurt and fold in the vanilla paste or seeds from half a vanilla pod.

Spoon half the cream mixture on top of one of the meringue halves and smooth out.

Sprinkle half of the berries evenly around the cream mix, place the other meringue on top and spread the remaining cream mix on top with the second half of the berries.

Scatter with mint leaves and it is ready to serve!

I hope you love it as much as we do - it is so delicious and the yoghurt cream mix really does lighten it up.

If you give it a whirl, please do tag me in your photos @askcharliehow so I can see! Would so love to see your creations.

Love,