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Eton Mess

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Eton Mess

Cuisine:British

Course:Dessert

15m prep 0s cook 15m ready

6 servings Named for the British boarding school Eton College where it originated, this is an unruly, summery dessert of crushed meringues and berries folded into whipped cream. It is the perfect dessert for peak strawberry season, although raspberries make an admirable stand-in. If desired, you may use store-bought meringue cookies in this recipe. Crumble 12 small meringues and fold them into the whipped cream. Serve garnished with additional meringues.

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Ingredients

Servings:
½× 1× 1½× 2× 3×
Units:
As Written US Metric
  • 1
    • (¾ cup finely ground toasted pecans, almonds, pistachios, or hazelnuts)
    Sub-recipe steps
    1. Prepare: French Meringue using the optional vanilla
    2. If desired, fold in: (¾ cup finely ground toasted pecans, almonds, pistachios, or hazelnuts)
    3. Using a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch open star tip or a zip-top bag with a bottom corner snipped off, pipe the batter into 1 ¼-inch kisses about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets. (Or, drop heaping teaspoons of batter in peaked mounds.) Bake for 45 minutes, switching oven racks and rotating the sheets halfway through. Turn the heat off and let the cookies stand in the oven for 30 minutes, or until cool.
  • 1 quart strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries
  • (2 tablespoons framboise, kirsch, or maraschino liqueur)
  • 1
    • 1 cup cold heavy cream
    • (2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 to 4 tablespoons sifted powdered sugar, or 2 teaspoons honey, to taste)
    • (½ teaspoon vanilla)
    Sub-recipe steps
    1. Beat in a large bowl (chill the bowl if your kitchen is very warm) with a hand mixer or balloon whisk or in a stand mixer set at medium-high speed, until stiff and billowy but not grainy: 1 cup cold heavy cream; (2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 to 4 tablespoons sifted powdered sugar, or 2 teaspoons honey, to taste); (½ teaspoon vanilla)
    2. Use immediately.

Let's Prepare

Collect

Gather these ingredients - no prep needed yet.

  • 1 Meringue Kisses
  • 1 quart strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries
  • (2 tablespoons framboise, kirsch, or maraschino liqueur)
  • 1 Whipped Cream or Whipped Crème Fraîche

Let's Cook

  1. Step 1.

    Prepare: Meringue Kisses

  2. Step 2.

    Combine in a medium bowl: 1 quart strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped; 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries; (2 tablespoons framboise, kirsch, or maraschino liqueur)

  3. Step 3.

    Allow to macerate at least 15 minutes. Prepare: Whipped Cream or Whipped Crème Fraîche

  4. Step 4.

    To serve, crumble one-third of the meringues and fold them into the whipped cream, then fold in half the strawberries (if the berries have exuded a lot of liquid, leave most of it behind in the bowl and save it to drizzle over the finished desserts). Divide the mixture among 6 dessert bowls or cups and garnish each with a whole meringue kiss and some of the remaining strawberries (store any leftover kisses in an airtight container for another use). Serve immediately.

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