Eton Mess

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A simple, summery dessert full of lovely sweet textures and flavours. This elevated Eton Mess is sure to wow all of your dinner guests!

Course: Christmas, Dessert

Cuisine: Australian

Pre heat your oven to 100℃ (212℉) -use convention setting, not fan-forced (see notes)
Line a baking sheet with silicone baking mats or baking paper (I use 2 large baking sheets)
In the mixer bowl of a stand mixer, place the egg white and cream of tartar
Using a hand mixer on low to medium speed, whisk the egg whites until foamy and beginning to form soft peaks (I use the hand mixer first, as it's a small amount of egg white and it's harder to whisk with the stand mixer at the start)
Place your mixing bowl onto your stand mixer and using a whisk attachment, whisk on low to medium, while slowly adding the caster sugar to the whipped whites, 1 tablespoon at a time (leave 30 seconds between each spoonful)
Once all of the sugar has been added, stop the mixer and scrape the side of the bowl with a silicone spatula
Now mix the meringue on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until it forms stiff peaks and is nice and glossy. Check that there are no large granules left, by rubbing a little of the meringue between your thumb and finger. You want a glossy, marshmallowy meringue here
Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle, then pipe out your meringue cookies. Because you're going to crush these, they don't need to be fancy. Pipe about 8 meringue cookies
Bake in the oven for 2.5 hours (for crispy, hard meringues) or 1.5 hours for a softer centre, then turn off the oven and leave the meringues to cool, with the oven door slightly ajar

Wash, trim and hull your strawberries, then slice them into small pieces or slices and add to a small bowl
Sprinkle over a tablespoon of sugar(to taste) and stir to combine (you can also add a teaspoon of Cointreau or Grand Marnier, for a boozy version)
Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to macerate and release all of the lovely juices

add the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips to a medium sized heat proof bowl and set aside
add the glucose syrup and half of the cold cream to a small saucepan and whisk over medium heat until it starts to bubble at the sides
pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for about 30 secondsuse a balloon whisk or a hand blender to combine the 2 ingredients, then whisk in the remaining cream (you just need to combine it at this stage)
cover with plastic wrap, making sure it is touching the surface of the mixture, then place in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours (or overnight). This is now basically a white chocolate ganache.
remove the chocolate ganache mixture from the fridge and, using a handheld electric whisk, whisk until it forms soft peaks. If you want the mixture to be firmer, you can whisk until it forms stiff peaks, but be careful not to over whisk it -it can become grainy very quickly!

Take 4 glasses and roughly crush half of the meringues into them
Pipe or scoop in a layer of the Chantilly cream, using half of the cream
Spoon over half of the strawberries
Repeat this process with the remaining half of each component and sprinkle the tops with a little of the meringue
The Eton Mess can be stored in the fridge that day, but for a crunchy texture, it's best to assemble it close to serving

Home Made Meringues (lots of notes, but they're very simple!)

Make sure you are whisking your egg whites in a clean bowl. Any trace of oil will prevent the whites from whipping, so give the bowl a quick wipe out before you start.
Don’t over whip your egg whites, as it will dry them out. You just want soft peaks before adding the sugar
Adding the caster sugar one spoonful at a time means your sugar dissolves into the egg whites, creating a gorgeous glossy meringue
Mix only on low-medium and medium speed. You don’t want too many air bubbles whipped into the meringue, or it can collapse
Avoid opening the oven door while the meringue is cooking, as it can lead to cracks in the meringue
Baking without the fan will give you lovely white meringues
You can adjust the bake time according to the size of your meringues. If you want smaller meringues, they will crisp up much faster

White Chocolate Chantilly Cream

or try my Chantilly Cream for a much faster option
Glucose syrup can be substituted with corn syrup or honey (honey will slightly alter the flavour)
When heating the cream, keep whisking and don't let it come to a boil, otherwise it can scorch on the sides of the saucepan. The best way to avoid this is to use your whisk or rubber spatula to scrape alongside the saucepan.
Covering the ganache with plastic wrap touching the surface means it won't form a skin and will give you a smooth Chantilly Cream
Soft peaks are perfect for this recipe. You can whip it a little bit longer if you like, but be careful not to over whip it and make it grainy!
An electric hand mixer with a whisk attachment is preferable to a stick blender, as the stick blender can quickly over whip the cream
This is a soft Chantilly Cream -if you want it slightly thicker, try using a little less cream to even up the ratio of chocolate and cream.