Eton Mess

Eton Mess is combination of fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and meringue cookies. This is a simple dessert which needs only assembling 3 ingredients made in advance.  The cream can be whipped and stored to be used when serving. Meringues can be store bought or made at home. Meringue is a fascinating airy, sugar bite I have admired growing up. It was a secret how they filled air and crunch into that little baked delights. When I heard about Pavlova, the Australian cake made with meringue, I wanted to experiment making that instead of tiny meringues. I consulted different recipes to make it. I finally ended up on a recipe by a Food Network cook. I followed it to the word. I whipped the egg whites and caster sugar to the right consistency and piped it to make big nests and set it in the oven to bake. I whisked 4 egg whites and made 5 meringue nests. Soon I found out it was not going in the right direction when it started to bake. The sad story begins now. The meringue nest started to brown after 20 minutes. I had set it to 300° F for 35 minutes as mentioned. The sides were baked but the center was still soft. Realizing the heat was on the higher side, I lowered it to 170° F and baked for another 30 minutes until all the moisture evaporated and crisped up. It finally dried up and baked and cracked. But I was not happy with the colour and the shape, so decided not to post it and ate them until we had a sugar high. Then my daughter suggested that we should try Eton Mess. I had lot of raspberries so I made a compote with it and assembled this cheery dessert.

Ingredients

• 2 Meringue nests
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup raspberries

1. Simmer raspberries and 2 tbsp sugar in a heavy bottom pan until it thickens. Set it aside to cool. (This can be made and stored.)
2. Whip cream adding 3 tbsp caster sugar until stiff peaks form and store it in the refrigerator.
3. Make meringue ahead or get them a bakery.
4. Break meringue into smaller pieces.
5. Drop some broken pieces of meringue in a cold glass cup, top with raspberry compote and top with whipped cream.
6. Repeat another layer of meringue, compote and cream.
7. Serve it immediately in 2 dessert cups.

This is a cool dessert with the crunch of meringue. It is a dessert lovers dream in a cup! Eton mess is less work for the hostess but is sure to be a conversation piece at the next party.

I am taking this to the lovely people partying at Fiesta Friday# 67!

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