Eton Mess is one of my favourite desserts, and it's very summery with a mix of fruits, cream, and meringue. Apparently, the dessert was named after a college in England. It is a traditional English pudding (or dessert, as they would say in the states). I've introduced my friends to the dish last summer. I made my bloke Eton Mess, photographed below. Use a margarita glass, wine glass, or martini glass to show off, and add a colourful cocktail stick to make it prettier.
The Eton Mess recipe that I use is a variation of one of Jamie Oliver's. Normally, I prefer to make my own meringue. However, if I am running short of time, I buy meringue from the shop. (Meringues are readily available in the major supermarkets in the summer.) The store-bought and mass-produced meringues are alright; homemade does taste better.
The ingredients you will need include:
- meringue
- strawberries
- red raspberries
- sugar
- vanilla pod
- 1 pint of double cream
Unless you are planning on making your own meringues, the step that is the most involved is the cream. You will want to cut the vanilla pod and put the vanilla pod 'seeds' inside the whipped cream. Also, put a couple of spoons of sugar into the cream. Put the cream and vanilla-sugar mix into a bowl and whip it. Make sure that you do not over-whip it. You still want it to be slightly runny. The vanilla gives the cream some flavour. Place in the fridge when you're finished.
Next, take some red raspberries and strawberries, and put these into a bowl with a couple of spoons of sugar. Crush up using a fork (or fingers) into a lumpy berry sauce. The amount of sauce you make depends on how many you wish to make, but you should keep some whole fruit.
The final step is folding all of the ingredients together. Start with some meringue, and break it up into varying degrees of powder or chunks. Place this in a martini glass. Fold some cream into it, then some fruit sauce, then perhaps place a whole berry in the mix. Keep folding the cream, meringue chunks, sauce, and berries together.
To prevent the meringue from going soggy, make sure that you fold the ingredients right before you serve the Eton Mess to your guests or family. Don't forget to enjoy!
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