Eton Mess is a lovely, versatile dessert: It's light, yet very satisfying, and appeals to both young and sophisticated palates. Traditionally made with strawberries, it takes advantage of seasonal fruit and can be thrown together in a matter of minutes. Served in bowls, it makes a nice casual family dessert or spoon it into vintage champagne glasses as a elegant finale to a fine dinner.
But how does it taste? Consider this: the sweet-tartness of strawberries surrounded by lush, cool whipped cream and punctuated by crunchy-chewy bits of crumpled meringue. The perfect marriage of taste and texture, especially if you've found a source for ruby red local berries.
Eton Mess is a classic British dessert or pudding, said to have been first created when a dog accidentally sat on a picnic hamper. Obviously, that's the mess part. The Eton part comes from the fact that it is the traditional dessert served at Eton College's picnic celebration on *gasp* the last Wednesday in May!
Many Eton Mess recipes call for homemade meringues and you can certainly go there it you want. But I was very happy with a store bought version, specifically a tub of Trader Joe's Vanilla Meringues. It's also traditional to use strawberries but it's worth experimenting with other fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, passionfruit, currants, blackberries...
Eton Mess
serves 6
1 quart of strawberries, hulled and sliced into thick chunks
A few tablespoons of sugar
1 pint whipping cream
12-15 Trader Joe's Vanilla Meringues, or any other smallish (2") meringues
Toss the strawberries in the sugar and set them aside to macerate for at least one hour, up to eight hours.
Whip the cream until it starts to thicken. You don't want to whip it until it is stiff--it should hold soft peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.
Reserve about 1 cup of berries for the garnish and fold the remaining berries (with all their delicious juice) into the whipped cream with a few light strokes. Crumple the meringues into the bowl, making sure to have some chunks and some fine powder.
Fold the mixture gently a few more times. You don't want to deflate the cream.
Serve in bowls or pretty stemmed glasses, garnishing the top with the reserved berries for a lovely bright red splash.
Let the Brits show you how its done:
Marco Pierre White, about 2 minutes in
(Images: Dana Velden)
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oh yum.
Every year we celebrate strawberry season by making at least one Eton mess... we use Delia Smith's recipe.
Isn't this basically a smashed Pavlova?
mschatelaine:
Delia Smith! Of course! Here it is.
I had this for the first time last weekend--it was great, but no one at the picnic knew the origin of the name. Thanks so much.
I agree with tasteduds. my first thought was smashed pavlova!
but, it's easier to make and to buy (cheating, i know) little meringues than making a pavlova-ish one.
i think the key is getting good, ripe fruit.
Fyi, Eton College is not, in fact, what Americans term as "college". In the UK, that can mean a school, as it does in this case. Like, as in, Prince William went to Eton College and then on to "University." Some of the schools within a university are called "colleges" too, like Trinity College at Cambridge. Very confusing.
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@tasteduds I thought pavlova involved a custard rather than whipping cream. At least, mine do. Or even one with chocolate mousse.
@Tiamat_the_Red I think the traditional way of making Pavlova uses whipped cream but I'm sure there's many variations to it. A chocolate mousse sounds good!
I've made Eton Mess the Jamie Oliver way - by adding a little balsamic vinegar to the strawberries and sugar and then layering it in a glass. Delish!
And I'm oh so jealous that you have strawberries already! I'm in Ottawa and I just, just got rhubarb and have to wait a few weeks for strawberries.
kitchengraffiti -- thanks for reminding me of home, and how spoiled we are here :-)
We have not only had strawberries for over 2 months now, we have had the most amazing strawberries from Provence for about a month, and as of a week ago in our farmer's market, a strawberry/fraise des bois berry that had the most amazing fruity/florally intense flavour of anything I have ever tasted in my life... Not even Isaac has berries like that (at the Byward Fruit Market).
I want to eat this so badly. I don't understand why I'm not running out to make this immediately.
tasteofbaltimore.blogspot.com
I still haven't made this, and I still want to! This is the year!