ETON MESS

Crunchy, smooth, tart and sweet!!  Those are the words that you can think of when you enjoy Eton Mess!!  A great mini dessert recipe for BRITISH month!!

Eton Mess.  One of my favorite British dessert because it’s beautiful and really easy to make.  Eton Mess is a great recipe because :

• It’s a very light recipe.
• You can make it ahead of time, just assemble before serving to your guests.
• You can make it in small containers.  Less calories!!  ?
• It’s a perfect ending to any dinners!
• You don’t need to be perfect in putting it together like a cake!  It is after all a “mess”!

Eton mess has three parts in it.  It has meringue, whipped cream, and strawberries.  All the ingredients can be store-bought but trust me, it is all really easy to make and will taste waaaaayyyy better than store-bought ingredients.

So the meringue.  When I made my first meringue, I was a little bit intimidated.  I thought it was going to be really hard and really complicated to make.  Turns out it’s one of the easiest cookie to make!  To make the meringue, you mix together the egg whites, a pinch of salt, and cream of tartar together.  Cream of tartar speeds up the creation of foam and helps stabilize the structure of the air bubbles you’re whipping up.  If you are love meringues and angel food cake, this is a staple ingredient in your pantry.

Once the egg whites comes to a soft peak like this ..

you can slowly add a tablespoon at a time of the superfine sugar.  You can do this while the mixer is on at low-speed.

When the egg whites has a stiff peak form, add the vanilla extract and food coloring.

Pipe the meringue into the baking sheets that are lined with parchment paper.  Space them out about 1 cm apart. They will not expand like cookies.

While the meringue are baking, it’s time to make the strawberries and whipped cream.  Both really easy process.  For the macerated strawberries, put chopped up strawberries in a bowl.  Add sugar and some orange juice.  Mix them all together and you have macerated strawberries!!

Whipping cream is easy because you dump and mix.  Put the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract in your stand mixer and whip until it becomes whipped cream!

Next is the assembly.  There are no rules in making Eton Mess, just have fun.

Here’s what I do.  Put a layer of the broken meringue at the bottom.

Then add a layer of delicious and smooth homemade whipped cream ..

Then add a layer of the sweet and tart macerated strawberries and then repeat.

The name might have “mess” in it, but it’s delicious in every bite!

Tips for making this Eton Mess :

• You can make the meringue in advance.  Meringue will keep in an airtight container for 2 weeks.
• The whipped cream can also be made ahead of time and keep in an airtight container and leave in the refrigerator.
• The Macerated Strawberries is best made 1 day ahead and stored in an airtight container.

Happy Baking !!