Kitchen Mome: Eton Mess Meringue

My favourite sporting time of year is here again: Wimbledon. This can only mean [in no particular order] Murray, Nadal, Meringue, Pimms, Strawberries and Cream. Last year, I used Wimbledon as the excuse to eat some form of meringue everyday as I’m pretty sure those are the rules of being a spectator, so I have two versions of Eton mess treats to share today, should you need more variety in your meringue consumption.

So very welcome.

First up, Eton Mess Profiteroles. sortedfood.com are to blame in teaching me how easy these are to make and I first had a go just over a year ago, which you can read about and see a more detailed method description here.

The difference was in the filling, which consisted of whipping cream, diced strawberries, diced raspberries and crushed meringue all whisked together until a firm consistency and bright pink.

[P.S – as the strawberries and raspberries are full of water, try and remove as much excess with a paper towel as possible and whip most of the cream before adding them to prevent the filling being too runny].

With a large nozzle [large enough for the diced fruit to go through] placed in the cut corner of a sandwich bag [l’ve been trying this as opposed to piping bags and it really is as easy as they say] I filled each profiterole with the mixture:

Once completed, I topped each with a spoonful of melted white chocolate and left to set in the fridge before serving:

If I’d been thinking a little more of the presentation, I’d have crushed a bit of meringue in the white chocolate before it set, or a few freeze-dried strawberries….guess I’ll have to make them again.

Yes, this is all for one person.

Next, a slightly different take on Eton Mess that gave me an excuse to try and fail at piping meringue cones. There were only two of us for dinner on Monday, so I used 1 egg and 40g caster sugar, which gave me enough mixture to attempt my piping four times – turns out you can try and fail four times easily, but hopefully this will give you the idea of what I was trying to do………….made as an upside down nest, I started by creating an outline circle and then continued piping on top, bringing the circles in to the middle with each round until I reached the top:

I went for two tone, adding a few drops of gel food colouring in to the mix as I transferred it from the bowl to the bag.

They stayed straight pretty well until I put them in the oven where they tilted, collapsed and looked so sorry for themselves that I considered giving up and just eating them, but in all honesty, they were only going to be smashed in the end, so I carried on like the soldier I am and filled the ‘cones’ with the eton mess mixture:

Seriously. The 'cone' on the top right. Hot mess.

To keep the mixture in, I topped with melted white chocolate, covering the base and left to set in the fridge:

To serve, I filled ramekins [thank goodness for Gu puddings] with chopped strawberries and raspberries and then added the meringue 'cones’ to the top: