Eton Mess

I cooked for my sister's birthday brunch over weekend. I love making brunch food; croissants, puff pastry, mini tarts, granola, yogurt, jams! All my favourites. I especially enjoyed making pissaladiere's, circles of puff pastry topped with caramelised onion and then roasted capsicum, olives and goats cheese or mushrooms and mozzarella and then baked. So tasty! Unfortunately, things got a bit hectic and i didn't get to take as many photos as i'd wanted. I do have a sneaking suspicion that many of my sister's friends think i have no life, as everything from the puff pastry to the yogurt and jams were homemade. Oh well. Doing it that way is hard work but so satisfying and it means I have control over all the ingredients. I love watching people enjoy my food, appreciating the effort and asking questions about the process. I managed to get some photos of the Eton mess' served at the end. They were hastily put together but I still like the look of them in my new mason jars, next time, however, I will make more coulis. 

Meringues: 

Ingredients:

200g egg whites (about 6)

400g castor sugar

Method:

Preheat the over to 150*C. In a stainless steel bowl stir the sugar and whites together. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir with a spatula until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm. Scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently to prevent sugar crystals forming. Remove the bowl from over the saucepan, wipe the base clean and transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk on high speed for 8-10mins, until stiff peaks have formed and the mixture is cool. Spoon or pipe the mixture onto trays lined with baking paper and place in the oven. reduce the heat to 130*C. Cook for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container. 

Makes 20 medium sized meringues. 

Eton Mess:

Ingredients: 

5 Punnets (punnet = 250g) strawberries

Half a lemon

5 tblsp icing sugar, sifted

1 litre whipping cream

20 meringues (above)

Method:

To make the coulis, wash and hull 3 punnets of the strawberries. Puree in a food processor with the lemon juice and four tblsp of the icing sugar. pass through a fine mesh sieve, pushing the pulp with the back of a spoon to good as much liquid out as possible. Whip the cream to soft peaks with the remaining tblsp of icing sugar (do not over whip) and wash, hull and slice the remaining strawberries. Break up the meringues into bite sized pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Carefully fold in the cream and 2/3 of the remaining strawbs. Fold in half the coulis to give a marbled effect. Distribute the remaining coulis between 16-18 200ml jars or glasses. Spoon the eton mess into the jars. Top with the remaining strawberries and if desired, sift over some icing sugar. 

Makes 16-18 individual Eton Mess'. 

Recipe Sources: 

Meringues: Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook

Eton Mess: Based on David Herbert's Recipe in The Weekend Australian Magazine, October, 2007.