Boysenberry Pavlova

the New Zealand celebration dessert in its finest summer dress: a crisp-shelled, marshmallow-hearted meringue crowned with whipped cream and a tumble of dark, glistening boysenberries

Origin: New Zealand

From the journey of Blackberry.

The pavlova, the meringue dessert with a crisp outer shell and a soft, marshmallow-like heart, is the great celebration sweet of New Zealand and Australia, argued over between the two nations but embraced wholly by both, and it appears at every Christmas table, birthday, and summer gathering. Named for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured the antipodes in the nineteen-twenties, it is traditionally crowned with whipped cream and whatever fruit the summer offers. In New Zealand, the world's foremost grower of boysenberries, that fruit is very often the boysenberry, and the pairing is inspired: the pale, sweet, cloud-soft meringue and the cool cream set against a heap of dark, tart, winey berries and their bleeding purple juice, the sharpness of the fruit cutting the sweetness of the meringue exactly as it should. A boysenberry pavlova is a thing of high summer and high occasion, the fruit's deep colour dramatic against the white, and it is the dish in which New Zealand shows off both its national dessert and its national berry at once.

Ingredients

Meringue

4 whole egg whites, at room temperature
250 g caster sugar
1 tsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

400 ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
400 g boysenberries (or blackberries)
2 tbsp caster sugar (for the berries)

Method

Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan) and line a baking tray with parchment, marking a 22 cm circle on it. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then add the 250 g caster sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking well between each, until the meringue is thick, glossy, and holds a firm peak, and the sugar is fully dissolved.
Whisk the vinegar, cornflour, and vanilla into the meringue. Spoon it onto the marked circle, building up the sides a little higher than the middle to make a shallow nest.
Put the pavlova in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 120°C (100°C fan). Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the shell is dry, crisp, and pale, then turn off the oven and leave the pavlova inside, door ajar, to cool completely.
Not long before serving, gently toss the boysenberries with the 2 tbsp caster sugar and let them sit for 15 minutes to soften and release some juice. Whip the cream with the icing sugar to soft peaks.
Set the cooled pavlova on a serving plate, pile the whipped cream into the centre, and tumble over the macerated boysenberries with their juice. Serve at once, cut into wedges.

Notes

The unfilled meringue base can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container in a dry place; do not top it until serving. Frozen boysenberries, thawed and drained, make a fine topping out of season, and a mix of boysenberries with blackberries or raspberries is lovely. For extra drama, some cooks fold a little of the crushed berry through the cream to marble it pink, or drizzle the finished pavlova with a boysenberry coulis.

The Gastrographer

Name: Boysenberry Pavlova
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: New Zealand
Ingredients: 4 whole egg whites, at room temperature; 250 g caster sugar; 1 tsp white wine vinegar; 2 tsp cornflour; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 400 ml double cream; 1 tbsp icing sugar; 400 g boysenberries (or blackberries); 2 tbsp caster sugar (for the berries)

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control