Preheat oven to 260 degrees F and line baking sheet with parchment paper
Crack your fresh eggs keeping just the whites and add to the bowl of your stand mixer
Start to whisk your egg whites on medium speed until you start to see peaks
Add in the salt and cream of tartar
At this point you are looking for a stiff peak. Where your egg whites can stand up on their own
When you have a medium stiff peak, turn your mixer to a lower setting and start to add sugar one teaspoon at a time. This step will take a few minutes
Once you have added all the sugar, turn the mixer up high and whisk for 5 minutes. Watch your egg whites at this point to ensure that they getting stiff and glossy
Once your egg whites are glossy and stiff, you should be able to turn the bowl upside down and nothing will come out
Scoop meringue onto your parchment paper in a mound
Smooth out with a spatula and make the design you like. I used my spatula and swiped up on the side to make a tutu effect. See my note about designs
On the top of your pavlova make a crater. This will fall in while baking so that you can fill the inside
Bake for 1 hour a 260 F, then turn the heat down to 250 F and bake for another 40 mins
When you are done baking turn the heat off and let your pavlova sit there for at least 2 hours to dry out or overnight. Do not open the door too much or it will crack. Turn the light on in your oven instead!
Maple Whipped Cream
If you are making this dairy-free: fold the coconut whipped cream with maple syrup and whisk in your stand mixer to make fluffy
If you are using whipping cream: mix the heavy whipping cream with sugar for 3 minutes until you have light fluffy whipped cream. Fold in maple syrup
Leave whipped cream in the fridge until you are ready to use. If you find its a bit flat then whip up before putting into pavlova
Assembling
Remove pavlova from oven
Put whipped cream into a large Ziploc bag or piping bag and fill center of pavlova with this
Top with fresh berries and icing sugar
This dessert is best enjoyed right away!
Enjoy!
Notes
Do not use boxed egg whites! I did this the first time, but they did not come out stiff. You want to have a stiff meringue so using fresh eggs is your best bet. The proteins are still intact and stiff in egg white that comes straight from a cracked egg
Granulated sugar works best in this recipe if you have very fine crystals. If you cannot find it in your store, you can use a food processor to crush your sugar into small crystals
Designs: I made my look like a tutu but I've also seen people pipe pavlova onto the side of their mound to give it more texture and design