Preheat the oven to 250F (an oven thermometer is a great tool to have in case your oven is not calibrated correctly) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Add the egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until foamy. With the mixer going, add the salt and vanilla beans and then slowly add the sugar. Let the mixer go on high until the whites are stiff and glossy, see photo in the blog, above.

Fold in the lemon juice and cornstarch.

Spoon the meringue into 4 equal circles on the baking sheet. Use the back of a spoon to make a concave dip in the center of each, where the whipped cream will go later. (You can make 8 smaller meringues if you like.)

Bake the meringues for 90 minutes, and don't disturb while baking. Then turn the oven off and crack the oven door open, and leave them in the oven for another hour.

To make the raspberry sauce put the berries in a saucepan with the sugar and the Amaretto or water and heat, stirring, until the raspberries break down and get soft.

Use an immersion blender or a small food processor to puree the sauce. You can strain out the seeds if you like, pushing the sauce through a mesh sieve to get as much of the sauce through as possible, while leaving the seeds behind. I strained half the sauce so that I still had some seeds remaining. Set aside. Note: you can also leave the raspberry sauce chunky and skip the blending entirely.

Whip the cream with the sugar until soft peaks form.

Assemble the pavlovas just before serving ~ put a nice dollop of whipped cream in the center of each meringue. Drizzle generously with raspberry sauce, then top with a few whole berries and mint leaves. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.