A Right Mess

Theoretically Eton Mess with its random mix of cream, strawberries and meringue should be blissfully easy - no need to try and make it look pretty, minimal cooking and great ingredients.  Yet over this summer we've bought a few that seem to debunk the blissful easiness.  They were too sweet, didn't have enough fruit and were served in long glasses that made them difficult to eat.  So for a summer dinner party I decided to see if I could do any better.

The first challenge was to increase the fruit content.  As well as the easy way of just using more fruit I also included a strawberry syrup - a suggestion stolen from Heston Blumenthal.  The syrup added some real strawberry flavour as well as colour to the pudding.  I also mascerated the strawberries in a little sugar for an hour or so to release their juices.

The meringue element was a challenge.  Normally I like my meringues to be a crisp shell encasing a marshmallowy centre.  Yet for Eton Mess the meringue not only adds sweetness but crunch. I ended up using my normal meringue recipe with the soft centre but cooking them longer to try and increase the crispy shell.

The cream was softly whipped whipping cream rather than double, which made the dessert slightly less rich.  I think adding some creme fraiche or yoghurt might also help balance what can be a very sweet dessert.

With rougly equal proportions of cream, strawberries and meringue it was a good Eton Mess, but still needed a real strawberry kick, that might have been provided by reducing down the syrup.

Strawberry Syrup

(https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/jun/28/foodanddrink.shopping)

750 g Strawberries Quartered
70 g Sugar

Place the strawberries and sugar in a bowl that fits snugly over a saucepan containing a few cm of barely simmering water (a ban marie).  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and cook gently for 90 minutes, making sure the water doesn't evaporate.

Strain the syrup from the strawberries by lining a bowl with muslin or a clean J-cloth. Tie the cloth with string to form a bag and suspend the bag of strawberries over a bowl to allow the syrup to drip through.  This is best done overnight in a fridge, but my fridge didn't allow for that so I suspended the bag over a bowl from the handles of a kitchen cabinet.

Meringue

300 g Caster Sugar
150 g Egg White

Heat the caster sugar in the oven at 200 ^oC until the edges begin to melt.  Start to whisk the egg white and then carefully add the sugar.  Carefully add the sugar and continue to beat until the meringue mixture forms stiff peaks.  Turn the oven down to 100 ^oC.  Dollop the meringue onto a lined baking tray.  As they are going to be broken up I didn't worry too much about the shape, although I did pipe a few to act as decoration.  Bake the meringue for 30 minutes and allow to cool.