Perfect Pavlova at the Farm

I have had a bit of a renaissance lately, the long hours of sunlight means at this time of year we really do get a glut of eggs.

There are only so many boiled eggs a family of five can eat (quite a lot actually) so I have been flicking through my recipe books and come up with a winner.

Pavlova.

Oh yes.

I had imagined it quite difficult to make but I turn to the person I always turn to in times of uncertainty.

The queen herself, Mary Berry.

She’s never let me down yet.

The last time I made meringue, they ended up brown rather than white. Mary’s recipe calls for caster sugar and it says if you want them brown, to use golden caster sugar.

As is always the case at the farm, I had neither. Just a packed of icing sugar at the back of the cupboard so it is this that I used.

It is fool proof. I just set the egg whites to whisk in my Kenwood and go off and stack the dishwasher or whatever else needs doing.

My circles aren’t strictly circle but I don’t think that matters.

The first one I put strawberries in as you can’t get much more British Summer time than that but since then, I have experimented.

The children love the tinned peaches version which I think is very retro and, while I’ve not perfected the technique of sliding the meringue off the baking sheet without it cracking, the family doesn’t seem to care.

Indeed, the youngest has never sat at the table for so long.

I feel like we have a whole summer to try different meringue recipes now. Eton Mess may be next but it is the impending blackberries which has really got me excited.

Imagine their bitter sweetness with the meringue.

What do you do with extra eggs?