Strawberry-Rhubarb Pavlovas

The Strawberry-Rhubarb Pavlovas are probably the most original recipes from Dessert Person; at least I’ve never seen a dessert like this before. While I have made meringue cookies and understand those dynamics, this recipe is essentially an expanded version of that, literally and figuratively.

Let’s get one thing out of the way now—I did not have any rhubarb for this recipe. I searched high and low in northern Utah for rhubarb this summer—grocery stores, specialty organic stores, farmers markets—and found nothing! I wanted to use fresh rhubarb rather than the expensive canned option on Amazon. So, not only does this mean I didn’t get to include this part in the Pavlovas, but I am not able to make the Rhubarb Cake recipe in Dessert Person either. I promise I tried. Other than that, everything else was pretty easy to find. I did use rose instead of white wine since we already had a bottle.

After getting the baking sheets ready, I cut a lemon in half and rubbed it around the inside of the stand mixer bowl. I never knew until this recipe that this can help egg whites whip more easily. I added the egg whites and salt and started beating in the stand mixer with the whisk attachment. I thought I had reached the point of the egg whites being white and foamy as directed, but after I had already slowly added in the sugar, I realized I probably should have waited about three more minutes. Luckily, it didn’t seem to make a big difference. This took about ten minutes in total to get the stiff peaks; this recipe seemed much more gooey than I recall the last time I made meringue cookies. I added in the powdered sugar and mixed slowly, then fast again to get it back to the stiff peaks. Then I added the vanilla and lemon juice, whisked more and called it good.

Typically, with meringue cookies, I use a piping bag to get a design; these I just dolloped on to a baking sheet. The dollops were huge—honestly, bigger than I would really want. I used a spoon to make a dent on the top of each for the whipped cream later. The next part is where my jaw dropped; after starting this recipe thinking it would only take an hour, the meringues had to bake in the oven for TWO HOURS, then cool for ANOTHER ONE to TWO HOURS! I was not mentally prepared for this, but on I went. I let the meringues cool by sitting in the oven propped open after I turned it off for an hour because I expected this whole thing to be an hour of my life, not four or five.

Since I didn’t have the rhubarb, I combined the sugar, rose, salt and water for a simple syrup on the stove. I added the lemon and vanilla and let it simmer. Instead of the rhubarb step, I sliced up the strawberries and combined it with the rose water (which was very fragrant, you seriously never need more than half a teaspoon of rose water in anything). Once the strawberries were infused, I added it to the simple syrup, giving me a nice red, juicy syrup after it cooled.

When I wanted to actually eat the Pavlovas, I whipped heavy cream into whipped cream, which took about five minutes to get stiff peaks. I placed some of the meringues on a plate, dolloped on heavy cream, then drizzled the strawberry juice and fruit over all of it. This is definitely a dessert you don’t want to assemble until you’re about to eat it.

For not having any rhubarb, I thought this recipe turned out pretty well. I liked the meringues, though they did have some gooey, clear bubbling on the bottom that occurred during the baking. I’m not sure why this happened; the only thing I can think is it was due to the size, as I never had this problem with small meringue cookies. I enjoyed the flavors together and thought it tasted very similar to a summery whip cream trifle dessert; my husband, however, was not into it. He thought it was too much sugar, which I can understand. If you don’t like things too sweet, this is not the dessert for you. However, if you’re looking for something that is arguably different from other desserts people typically make, this is a good one to try.

Claire has not yet posted this dessert on her YouTube channel; I’ll let you know if she does!