Miss Mardi's mini meringues!

My lovely mixer, ready to be given a test drive.

After pulling my gorgeous tangerine Kitchen Aid stand mixer out of the box and drooling over it, I needed a recipe to give it a whirl with.  When I went to see my parents over Christmas, they gave me loads of farm fresh eggs so the best answer seemed pavlova!  I've never made pavlova before (I know, shock horror!) so I researched a couple of recipes.

There were a few things that I had remembered about 'pavs', the eggs needed to be room temperature and I probably needed cream of tartar.

Don't forget to have eggs at room temperature!

I had pulled all the ingredients together and then wondered should I make one giant pavlova or some smaller, individual sized ones?  Naturally the answer came from Martha and I followed her Kiwi Meringue recipe, but omitted the lemon to the meringue and the kiwi.  Yes, I just used the meringue part really.

A quick run down of the recipe!  Ingredients include:

4 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar (I used caster sugar)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
 
How to!

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. With a mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until very soft peaks form. While beating, gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, then add cornstarch and lemon zest. Continue to beat until meringue is thick and marshmallowy, about 5 minutes. Drop 6 mounds of meringue, 3 inches apart, onto prepared sheet. Using the back of a spoon, make a small well in the center of each mound.

Place sheet in oven; immediately reduce temperature to 120 degrees celsius. Bake until meringues are pale and easily lift from paper, about 2 hours. Turn off oven; let sit in oven, 30 minutes. Transfer sheet to a rack to cool, 1 hour. (To store, keep meringues in an airtight container, up to 2 days.)

meringue all completed, ready to be topped.

I topped our individual mini pavlovas with a combination of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries that had been drizzled with some Pimm's over some luscious whipped cream.  (Thank you Kitchen Aid again!)

The finished, delicious product!

The final result is very satisfying.  I'm sure these little Miss Mardi's mini meringues will be coming out at future dinner parties during the Summer months!  A hint from Martha though is not to bake these little guys in humid weather as they won't crisp up as they should!