Sweet 4th Finish

This is a favorite dessert of ours and one of Jackie’s specialties as a whole strawberry meringue pie. But we can change it up and make individual pavlovas filled with sweet whipped cream and fresh strawberries and blue berries and you’ve got the perfect red, white and blue dessert for your 4th of july party! Here’s how….

Start with making your meringue crust as we showed you in one of our original Two Chums posts. Click here for the simple recipe.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 275 degrees. Once you’ve made your whipped meringue, to make individual servings place the meringue in a pipping bag or a large ziplock bag and snip the tip of one corner to allow the meringue to be piped out. Start by spiraling the meringue in a roughly 3 inch circle. Then pipe again over the edge creating a lip. Pipe again to build up the side.

Bake as directed in the original recipe. This will make 12 individual mini meringues. Once they are cooked and left overnight to dry completely in the oven, there are ready to fill.

Whip 2 cups of heavy cream with about 1/4 cup sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. When you have stiff peaks of cream stop whipping and stir in cut up fresh strawberries and blueberries and fill each meringue cup. Top with a whole strawberry and a few blueberries and serve. These are simple and sweet. The meringue is at first crunchy then mixes with the sweet soft cream and the whole thing melts in your mouth in a burst of deliciousness…its a celebration! What could be a better way to finish off your 4th of July meal? And as if this couldn’t get any better, it is even gluten free!

Enjoy your day and here’s to a sweet 4th finish 🙂