• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Greedy Gourmet | Food & Travel Blog

Greedy Gourmet is an award winning food and travel blog. Eclectic recipes from all over the world are regularly published, satisfying the blog's audience of adventurous eaters' needs.

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • Pantry
    • Ingredient Substitutes
    • Q & A
    • Recipe Compilations
    • Cook By Ingredient
    • Quizzes
  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Cooking Times / a) 30 mins or less / Eton Mess

Eton Mess

17th July 2017 - By Michelle Minnaar
This post may contain affiliate links.

FacebookTweetPin7YummlyShares7
Jump to Recipe

I know that I’ve been posting a lot of savoury recipes recently, so here is some Eton Mess. Don’t get me wrong, they are amazing and just as delicious as any dessert! Remember my first time cooking Sri Lankan cuisine, preparing Isso Baduma? What an adventure!

However, I feel it is time to satisfy my craving for something sweet. Therefore, making Eton Mess is the perfect dessert for summer evenings. It’s not too sweet and it is totally refreshing. You’ll be wanting to make it at least once a week. And yes, it’s super easy. No baking involved!

Mess

What is Eton Mess?

Eton Mess is a wonderful dessert, which consists of cut fruit, freshly whipped cream and with pieces of meringue thrown in. My Eton Mess is made out of freshly cut strawberries.

The term “mess” comes from the way it is put together. Usually, you throw everything together on a plate or in a clear cup, and yes it looks a mess! Presentation is not the most important thing when it comes to this dessert. It’s the taste, leaving you with a smile on your face. In fact, the Eton Mess reminds me of desserts I’ve recently made. Instead of fruit, I used brownies and chocolate. Make sure you check these out:

  • Peppermint Crisp Tart
  • Mini Chocolate Trifles

Ingredients Dessert

Origin

Surprise, surprise, eton mess is originally from the town Eton in the UK. More specifically, from Eton College. Some say, that Eton Mess was discovered there by accident during an annual cricket match, back in the early 1900’s. Apparently, someone had dropped their meringue on the floor and served it anyway. Others say that the Eton Mess can be credited to a Labrador dog, that accidentally sat on someone’s picnic basket, crushing everything inside.

Pre-made meringue

For this recipe, you can either purchase pre-made meringue or you can make it yourself. Generally, I recommend using fresh meringue for the Eton Mess. However, I completely understand if you decide to go for the pre-made stuff. If you do decide to buy the meringue, then be careful in terms of where you buy it. Sometimes, it’s best to buy it directly in the bakery. The latter makes it super fresh, so there is almost no difference in taste. I can’t say the same for the supermarket counterpart.

Components Eton Mess

Homemade meringue

Regardless, with the pre-made meringue, it will take you no time at all. My estimation would be around fifteen minutes at most. If you want your Eton Mess to be fresh from start to finish, then try making a homemade meringue. It’s really easy actually! All you need is two types of sugar and eggs. Oh, and a stand mixer or an electric hand whisk to mix everything together. Otherwise, it can be quite hard wearing on your arms. In addition, this will ensure that your mixture is fluffy and glossy at the same time.

After that, you need to place the meringue mixture into little spheres on a baking tray and insert them into the oven for a while. They take quite some time. You want the meringues to crisp up nicely, and turn a little brown on top. The longer you leave them in, the more crunch they will have. Ultimately, you want the meringue to be as crunchy as possible, so it will complement the creamy nature of the Eton Mess.

Strawberries

The original Eton Mess recipe calls for strawberries. Obviously, if you buy fresh strawberries from the farmer’s market, your dessert will have tons of fresh flavour. No need to add too much sugar, because you’ll want to preserve the fresh taste of the strawberries. With store bought strawberries, you’ll need to add more sugar in my opinion. Personally, I don’t like when there is too much sugar in desserts, it throws off the balance of flavours.

Eton Mess Strawberry

Whipped Cream

Fresh whipped cream is an absolute must for this recipe. You want that nice fluffy texture in your dessert, something that stuff from a can simply won’t achieve. For getting the perfect whipped cream, you’ll need to whip with an electric mixer. Wait until there are soft peaks forming on top. Just be careful not to over-whip, otherwise you’ll have butter! If you over-whip, no worries, just add a little bit of liquid cream and mix gently with a spatula. Eventually, the lumps should disappear.

Dash of a little something extra

The beauty of making an Eton Mess is that it is super versatile. You can spice it up with a dash of port, rum, cognac or brandy very easily. Just don’t add too much. I think a little bit of port is a perfect addition. If you’re not a fan of alcohol, then you can add any type of cordial. Again, don’t add too much, otherwise the Eton Mess will become rather syrupy and soggy.

I recommend adding a strawberry coulis or any fruit curd to the mixture, if you wish for the dessert to have extra flavour. Some people add fruit jam and are perfectly happy with the result. I just like to add more fresh strawberries.

Eton Mess Traditional

Substitutes

The most popular substitute for the strawberries are bananas, blueberries or raspberries. Usually, people add brownies  or chocolate syrup to go with the bananas. I’ve also seen people go more exotic with the Eton Mess, and experiment with pineapple or kiwi. Sounds a bit strange, but still is delicious. As mentioned before, you can pick whatever fruit you like. Just remember, to serve the Eton Mess straightaway, otherwise the whole thing goes soggy. Add some fresh mint or chocolate shavings as garnish!

Peppermint Crisp Tart

Mini Chocolate Trifles

Easy Banoffee Pots

 

Print
clock clock icon cutlery cutlery icon flag flag icon folder folder icon instagram instagram icon pinterest pinterest icon print print icon squares squares icon

Eton Mess


★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Michelle Minnaar
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe
Scale

Ingredients

  • 400g (1lb) strawberries, hulled, washed and chopped
  • 4 meringue nests, broken up
  • 400ml (⅔ pt) double cream, softly whipped
  • 60ml (4 tbsp) strawberry jam or coulis
  • Mint leaves, for garnishing

Instructions

  1. Stir the meringue and half the strawberries into the cream.
  2. Add the jam, and stir gently to create a swirl effect.
  3. Divide the mixture between four dessert bowls and top with the remaining strawberries and some mint leaves.
  4. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: British

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 serving
  • Calories: 520
  • Sugar: 20 g
  • Sodium: 80 mg
  • Fat: 37.9 g
  • Saturated Fat: 23.4 g
  • Carbohydrates: 44.6 g
  • Fiber: 2.2 g
  • Protein: 3.8 g
  • Cholesterol: 139 mg

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @greedygourmet on Instagram and hashtag it #greedygourmet

save the recipe to your pinterest board

Eton Mess

A special thanks to Kelly Reeve for assisting with the recipe shoot.

FacebookTweetPin7YummlyShares7

RECEIVE FAB RECIPES, WIN EXCLUSIVE PRIZES + MORE

Subscribe to my free newsletter and receive an eCookbook of my most popular recipes!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. cheryl hadfield says

    17th July 2017 at 10:23 pm

    I love preparing dessert with my family, making everyone involved is so much more fun

    Reply
  2. Jemma says

    18th July 2017 at 4:08 pm

    You can’t go wrong with an eton mess. This looks yummy!

    Reply
  3. Sus // roughmeasures.com says

    19th July 2017 at 8:32 am

    Eton Mess is such a lovely classic summer treat. Your photos make it even more delicious too.

    Reply
  4. Elizabeth says

    19th July 2017 at 10:49 am

    It’s been positively ages since I’ve made Eton Mess, I’ll have to make a batch soon – gosh it looks so good!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  5. Solange says

    19th July 2017 at 11:59 pm

    Chocolate Fudge Cake.

    Reply
  6. Tracey Belcher says

    21st July 2017 at 6:20 am

    I love home-made ice-cream desserts

    Reply
  7. Suzanne Jackson says

    23rd July 2017 at 8:14 pm

    I like tirimasu

    Reply
  8. Jodie A Green says

    23rd July 2017 at 8:35 pm

    has to be black forest gateau for me

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  9. Zoe Payne says

    23rd July 2017 at 8:56 pm

    salted caramel brownies with vanilla ice cream

    Reply
  10. Lydia A says

    24th July 2017 at 8:42 pm

    Sticky toffee pudding has got to be my favourite!

    Reply
  11. Alison Johnson says

    29th July 2017 at 12:27 am

    Cheesecake. Any kind of cheesecake!

    Reply
  12. Heather Haigh says

    29th July 2017 at 7:57 am

    I think it would be a gooey chocolate pud with cream

    Reply
  13. Jo Young says

    6th August 2017 at 6:47 pm

    I love a melt in the middle chocolate fondant. I’ve subbed!

    Reply
  14. Rich Tyler says

    10th August 2017 at 12:25 pm

    New York Cheesecake

    Reply
  15. ADEINNE TONNER says

    28th August 2017 at 11:40 pm

    My favourite dessert has to be banana cream pie

    Reply
  16. Robyn Clarke says

    30th August 2017 at 1:42 am

    Malva pudding(I’m South African too :-))

    Reply
  17. Fozia Akhtar says

    30th August 2017 at 9:14 pm

    Yummy Eton Mess

    Reply
  18. Claire Little says

    30th August 2017 at 9:40 pm

    ice cream

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

RECEIVE FAB RECIPES, WIN EXCLUSIVE PRIZES + MORE

Subscribe to my free newsletter and receive an eCookbook of my most popular recipes!

Footer

 

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

 

  • Home
  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Contact
  • Copyright, Privacy & Disclosure Policy
  • Food Photography
  • Recipe Development
  • Food Videography
  • Site Map

All photos found on Greedy Gourmet are available for licensing. Contact me for quotes. Alternatively, go to Stock Photos to see what's available.

Copyright Greedy Gourmet© 2007–2021