Strawberry kawakawa pavlova

SERVES 6 / PREPARATION 40 MINUTES / COOKING 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES

2 large egg whites

100g caster sugar

¼ teaspoon white vinegar

¼ teaspoon vanilla essence or vanilla paste ⅓ teaspoon cornflour

100g mascarpone

1 heaped tablespoon icing sugar

2 punnets strawberries dried kawakawa baby basil edible flowers

Preheat the oven to 110℃. Whisk the egg whites until they start to form stiff peaks, add the sugar in two parts and continue to whisk for 5 minutes or until very stiff peaks form. Slowly whisk in the vinegar and vanilla, followed by the cornflour. It’s easiest to do this in a stand mixer but can be done by hand, too. Line a baking tray with nonstick paper. Fit a piping bag with a round nozzle approximately 2cm wide and fill with the mixture. With the piping bag vertical, pipe a spiral of meringue, keeping the nozzle a few centimetres from the tray, allowing the meringue to fall into shape, rather than pressing it into itself. Your spiral should be about 8cm in diameter. Repeat this on top of itself to create two spirals stacked. Repeat this step to make six individual pavlovas. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Whisk together the mascarpone and icing sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Set aside in the fridge until needed.

Dice the strawberries into 1cm cubes. Mix with about ½ teaspoon of kawakawa and taste – you want to get hints of the pepperiness from the kawakawa but you don’t want to put too much in as it can become unpleasant very quickly.

Pipe or spoon about one large tablespoon of the mascarpone cream onto each pavlova, cover with the diced strawberries and decorate with the baby basil and flowers.