I had quite a lot of raspberries left over after making my Raspberry Prosecco Cocktail so I decided to make my very easy and quick version of Eton Mess.
This is an English dessert usually consisting of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream traditionally served at Eton College's annual cricket game against Winchester College. The dish was served in the 1930s in the school tuck shop and was originally made with strawberries or bananas and cream or ice-cream with meringue apparently being a later addition.
miss b's Eton Mess
Serves 4
4-6 meringue nests shop-bought or home-made
300ml pot of double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar (optional)
225g raspberries
1. Whip 250ml cream lightly in a large bowl and stir in the icing sugar, if used.
2.Roughly crush the meringues into the bowl and stir gently.
3.Halve the raspberries (reserving four for decoration). Add to the bowl and stir to combine.
4.Spoon into four glass dishes or large wine glasses, pour over the remaining cream and decorate with the reserved whole raspberries.
I'm not usually a fan of shop-bought meringues as they are often too powdery or brittle but I was very impressed with the texture and taste of the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference meringue nests which I used here.
Recipe based on this one at netmums
miss b recommends these variations:
- Adding a tablespoon of raspberry liqueur or kirsch to the halved raspberries before mixing with the cream and meringue
- Using mixed berries, strawberries, bananas or any other soft fruit instead of raspberries.
- Replace the icing sugar with vanilla sugar
- Replace half the double cream with crème fraiche or marscapone
- Replace the cream with ice cream.
