Individual Pavlovas with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce
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Individual Pavlovas with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce will be the highlight of your Christmas dessert table. These Pavlovas are luxurious, elegant desserts that are much easier to make than you’d think. They have a melt-in-your-mouth texture and the toppings take them to a whole new level. And everyone will love these individual servings!
Christmas Pavlova Recipe
Merry Christmas! No, but seriously I’m just going to state the obvious, these totally look like I was making a Christmas-inspired dessert. Have you seen those gorgeous Christmas pavlova wreath desserts? It was not what I was going for seeing as it is September, rather I was just wanting to make a dainty and delicate dessert and these lovely colored desserts just happened to be it.
I’ve been wanting to post pavlovas and have had this combination in mind for quite some time, so I couldn’t take not trying it out any longer. You have to love the randomness of my food blog right?
Maybe it would have been wise to wait until the holidays get closer to post them – but really these are so good that, like me, you won’t want to wait for the holidays either.
I especially love individual pavlovas because they’re so quick to serve, rather than a big pavlova that is melting and messy as you try to share.
Individual Pavlovas with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
Just ask my husband, they left him speechless for like 5 of the longest seconds ever. I was waiting for a response after he’d taken his first bite (because he and my kids are the second opinions around here) and then finally he was like “Wow! That is like the best thing I’ve ever eaten!” I love it when I can get a good review.
To give you an idea of what these are all about, just imagine having sweet, fluffy, marshmallow-like clouds that are inside and entirely surrounded by a delicate, crisp, melt-away, candy-like outside shell and topping that with a fluffy, cheesecake inspired, cream topping.
Then it’s covered with a tart, fresh raspberry sauce and then slowly pressing a fork longingly through each of those layers as the delicate meringue cracks and glides through its soft center, then gently carrying all of that food bliss (as not to allow even a speck of sauce to fall and waste even a drop) to your dessert-parched mouth. Strawberries may also work, but I think the sweetness of the pavlova needs the tartness of berries. Maybe pomegranate seeds or lemon curd would be fun, too. Adding a little garnish of mint leaves looks nice and smells divine.
Yes, basically these have become something I’ll dream about. Even though these aren’t the quickest desserts that can be made, they’ll have you feeling that they are definitely well worth the wait once you try them. If you have an electric whisk or stand mixer, all it takes is patience to let the beaters do the work. Raspberry cheesecake lovers, don’t pass this one by.
Pavlova Ingredients
- Regular sugar or icing sugar
- Cornstarch
- Egg Whites
- Cream of Tartar
- Salt
- Vanilla Extract
- Mint leaves
- Raspberries
- Cream Cheese
- Heavy cream or double cream
- Water
Be sure to carefully grease your baking trays, and use a piping bag to pipe the mixture if you want them to be uniform.
Oh, and please don’t toss those egg yolks, make ice cream, pudding, mousse, fruit curd, egg nog, fettuccine alfredo – there’s plenty of good uses for them. Enjoy!
Follow Cooking Classy
Individual Pavlovas with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 6 large egg whites
- 1/4 tsp (heaping) cream of tartar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Fresh mint , for garnish (optional)
Raspberry Sauce
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp cornstarch
- 18 oz fresh raspberries (frozen would work too)
- 1/3 cup water
Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- FOR THE PAVLOVAS: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites with cream of tartar and salt on medium speed until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes.
- Increase speed to medium-high and slowly add in sugar mixture (I just continuously added 1 heaping tbsp at a time one right after the other), then increase speed to high and whip until stiff glossy peaks form, about 5 minutes, adding in vanilla during last minute of mixing.
- Spoon and dollop meringue into about 3 1/2-inch circles onto parchment paper lined baking sheets then use the back of the spoon to create slight dips in their centers.
- Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes, then leave in oven with door closed, turn off oven and allow to rest in oven 45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
- To assemble, top meringues with Cream Cheese Whipped Cream then Raspberry Sauce and garnish with mint. Assemble just before serving.
- FOR THE RASPBERRY SAUCE: In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in 1/3 cup water.
- Add half of the raspberries, then cook mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until mixture has thickened.
- Remove from heat and cool completely. Stir in remaining raspberries. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.
- FOR THE WHIPPED TOPPING: In a mixing bowl whip heavy cream until soft peaks form then add sugar and vanilla and whip until nearly stiff peaks form.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whip cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese to whipped cream mixture and whip until stiff peaks form. Store in refrigerator.