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Eton Mess must be the most perfect English summer dessert! Especially as it is soo easy to throw together and almost impossible to get wrong.
All you need are meringues, whipped cream, sugar and some fruit (I have been using berries just because they are delicious right now). I have even been very lazy and have been using shop-bought meringues (Meringues seem to be quite hard work to make yourself, especially if you then end up crumbling them up into a big bowl of whipped cream, I think… but I am very happy to be corrected)!
All you need to do is whip up the cream (Esther and I made this recently for a party and I would say you should count for about 250 ml for around 6 people). After the cream is whipped, crumble in the meringues, and stir in the fruit. I would be a bit careful about not stirring too much, as it looks prettier if it has a slight marble effect, though it would taste just as good. Serve immediately before the meringue crumbles lose their crunch!
– Emilie
(The photo above is of Esther’s daughter, Sara, serving up a big dish of Eton mess).
Comments (5)
Yum! That was really an excellent dessert and a fun evening! xxx
Pass me a spoon please! It looks delicious. Eton mess is our favourite dessert – so simple to make but so yummy!
What a gorgeous photo! I love Eton Mess – SO yummy! I attempted to make meringues the other day and it worked out okay – the trick I was told (which seemed to work) was to leave the meringue in the oven (once you have switched the oven off)… if possible make them in the evening and pull them out of the cold oven in the morning – then they should be perfect & just a little bit chewy in the middle! But that was a one-off -I’ve bought them ever since – much easier & just as yummy in eton mess! 🙂
Making meringues is really very easy and to be honest home-made ones are so much nicer than the dry saw dust tasting shop bought versions. Here is a very simple recipe and Rachel is quite right – just leave them in the oven overnight to get that dry outside but sticky toffee like inside. Heat the over to 120 degrees Celsius, whip 5 egg whites to stiff peak stage (don’t over beat as they get brittle), beat in 280g of caster sugar a tablespoon at a time and then dollop the glossy meringue mixture onto 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper to make 16 low round nests, bake for about an hour until the meringues peel off easily from the paper and then leave to cool in the oven. You can sandwich the nests together as a dessert or break them up in a bowl to make a mess. Emilie maybe you can please tell me what double whipping cream is in French and where I can buy it.
Carole,
I used creme fleurette. Hilariously we did not have a handmixer so had to whip it up by hand which required some serious arm work! Thank you for the meringue recipe, will have to try it out!