Strawberry, White Chocolate, and Matcha Pavlovas

Preheat oven to 200ºC and make the meringue. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and spread the sugar out on the tray. Warm in the oven until the edges of the sugar just start to melt, about 2-3 minutes. Watch very closely or else you’ll have a pool of caramel! Remove from the oven

Next, clean your mixing bowl and beaters by wiping down with a bit of vinegar and paper towel. This will ensure no traces of oil remain to interfere with your egg whites. Add your egg whites and beat on a low speed, gradually increasing the speed until you’ve got stiff peaks, but be careful not to overbeat to the point where they look like bath suds, otherwise you’ll have to start again. Begin adding the sugar 1 tsp at a time on a high speed. Continue until all the sugar is mixed in and the meringue is thick and glossy. Beat until all the sugar is dissolved and you can’t feel any granules between two fingers when you rub a bit together. Add your matcha and GENTLY fold it into the mixture.

Fill a piping bag with an open star tip and pipe the mixture out into 16 nest shaped meringues on parchment lined baking trays. Alternatively, you can also spoon the mixture out and make a little dent in the middle if you don’t have a piping bag. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the meringues come away cleanly from the parchment paper.

In the meantime, halve the berries and macerate in a bowl with a tablespoon of sugar and the lime zest. Next, make the white chocolate cream. Bring a couple inches of water to a boil in a small saucepan and break up your chocolate and put in a metal or glass bowl. When the water has reached boiling, remove it from the heat and place the bowl with the broken up white chocolate over the steam. Stir constantly until melted. Then beat your cream until you come to firm peaks and add 1/3 of your cream to the chocolate. Stir together to lighten the chocolate mixture, then add it all back into the rest of the cream and fold in gently.

Once the meringues are baked, prepare the pavlovas by spooning 1tbsp of the cream into the meringue nests and add a few berries. Add another layer by stacking a 2nd meringue nest and adding a bit more cream and a couple berries to the top. Serve immediately and enjoy!