Pavlova strawberries and chantilly

• 100 g egg whites
• 200 g of granulated sugar
• 20 g of cornstarch
• 1 pinch of salt
• a basket of strawberries (or red fruits as desired)

INGREDIENTS (for the chantilly cream)

• 200 g of fresh cream
• icing sugar (depending on your preferred level of sweetness)
• vanilla (or the seeds of a pod or a teaspoon of extract)

• We prepare the meringue by whipping the egg whites with a pinch of salt, when it starts to become frothy we add the sugar little by little and the cornstarch until we obtain a very firm meringue.
• Cooking varies greatly depending on the oven.
• In my old oven I cooked at 90° for 2 hours with the door half-open (I inserted a wooden spoon to keep the door half-open and let the humidity, the enemy of meringues, escape).
• In the new oven, however, which has the 'Meringues' function, preheat the oven to 120° (fan-assisted mode).
• Spread the meringue on a baking tray lined with baking paper in a circle of about 20 cm (draw the circle on the paper and then turn it over, so you can see the mark without it touching the meringue). The edges must be higher, so make a large hollow in the center.
• Bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the meringue cool with the oven open.
• Prepare the Chantilly cream by whipping the fresh cream with the icing sugar (sweeten to taste) and the vanilla.
• Spread a layer of Chantilly cream in the meringue shell (you can use a piping bag if you prefer). Wash and cut the strawberries into pieces. You can sweeten them by sprinkling them with powdered sugar. Insert them into the shell and cover with more Chantilly cream. Complete with the fruit of your choice.
• It is a dessert to be served immediately or almost. You can store it in the refrigerator but it fears humidity so fill it at the last moment.