Throw a tea party for your kids with these better-for-you Pavlovas. They’re topped with Greek yogurt (not whipped cream!) and a nutritious mix of berries, grapes, and fresh mango.
For this month’s Recipe Redux cooking challenge, participating bloggers were given the following assignment: Tea cups around the world are bubbling up with bold new flavors: From cardamom chai and sencha green to bubble teas and veggie teas, I’ll be cooking and baking and stirring up tea-inspired healthy dishes.
I took creative license by creating an old fashioned tea party with an updated twist. On my menu …. a caffeine-free mint tea and a recipe for fruit-and-yogurt-topped pavlovas. My treats don’t contain tea per se, but they’re perfect for a child’s tea party or an afternoon tea with the ladies.
For my party, I brewed up Tazo mint green tea. The description sounded like something kids and adults would both enjoy: An invigorating herbal infusion of peppermint and spearmint dressed with a pinch of tarragon. As for my treat, I decided to make pavlovas topped with fresh fruit and plain Greek yogurt versus the usual whipped cream.
Pavlova is a light, fluffy meringue dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova.
Meringues are easy to make. Yes, they’re made with sugar, but you can definitely health-ify them by adding lots of fresh fruit on top.
My intern Alexa—who’s working with me for three weeks as part of her senior year high school internship requirement—makes pavlovas all the time for her own family, so she led the charge as we created our better-for-you tea party!
- Serves: 8
- Serving size: 1 pavlova, yoghurt
- Calories: 100
- Fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrates: 20g
- Sodium: 35mg
- Protein: 4g
- 4 large egg whites
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 to 1¼ cups 2%-fat plain Greek yogurt
- Drizzle of agave
- A few pinches of lemon zest
- Diced fresh fruit such as berries, grapes, and mango, optional
- Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw four, 4-inch circles on each piece of paper, and then turn the paper over. Set aside.
- Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl and beat on medium speed until frothy. Gradually add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until whites stand in stiff, glossy peaks, about 10 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Preheat oven to 250°. Divide the meringue evenly among the 8 drawn circles. Shape into nests with half-inch sides using the back of a spoon.
- Bake 1 hour, rotating baking sheets halfway through. Turn oven off, and cool meringues in closed oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Place the Greek yogurt in a bowl and mix in the agave and lemon zest until well combined. Fill each meringue evenly with the Greek yogurt mixture and top with fruit as desired.
Hey! I loved this recipe! It was very yummy!
I have always wanted to make a pavlova since I love making meringue cookies! This gave me a little extra inspiration to do just that and create a yummy recipe 🙂
xoxo Sarah Grace, Fresh Fit N Healthy.
they are lovely!
What a gorgeous table scape – worthy of these lovely pavlovas – I haven’t made these in eons and am pinning right now.
Can you believe Liz used her iPhone 5s to take the photos?!
I wish my iPad would take pictures as clear as Liz’s iPhone. The Palovas
are perfect for and afternoon tea!
Great take on this month’s theme. My mom is a tea party planner/coordinator and she would love this!
Ever since I went to college in Australia, I’ve wanted to make these! Just gotta do it…my girls would love to have a seat at this tea party!
Beautiful photographs! I have never attempted meringue before. These look so lovely I may have to attempt the recipes!
These sound like something my son would enjoy. One question though – you list Drizzle of agave and A few pinches of lemon zest in the ingredients, but they’re not used in the recipe instructions. Where do they go?
Amy, you are officially hired as our editor. Sorry we left out the instructions for the zest and agave. They get mixed into the Greek yogurt as desired! The correction has been made 🙂
These are almost as easy and definitely as delicious as they look. We all loved them but I had two problems. One was that the beautiful baskets turned a bit brown in my oven….too hot? The other was that the yogurt softened up the pavlovas even though i did not add the yogurt and fruit until about an hour before we ate.
Amanda, your oven may be too hot. What kind of baking sheet did you use? A dark one? As for the yogurt, we added just before serving, so perhaps that’s the best approach here. We’ll update our recipe with that direction. Thanks for the feedback 🙂