- Have you tried Eton mess?
It is a classic British dessert
and it's ridiculously easy.
Here's your next favorite no-bake dessert.
(bright music)
Hey everybody, it's Natasha of natashaskitchen.com
Eton mess.
It's an interesting name, but this dessert is such a treat.
It's three parts.
Fresh berries, whipped cream, and meringue cookies,
and it doesn't get any easier than this.
And I'm totally craving this.
My sweet tooth is speaking.
So let's get started.
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All right, let's do this.
Strawberries.
You'll need one pound of fresh strawberries.
Cut off the tops.
Then cut the strawberries into quarters or smaller
if your strawberries are very large.
This dessert is one of my favorite ways to use up
sweet summer strawberries,
but you can also use winter strawberries, if you have to,
and just add more sugar to taste.
Add those to a large mixing bowl, then set aside one third
of your chopped strawberries.
Into your mixing bowl,
add some fresh lemon zest.
You'll need a teaspoon of zest
and two teaspoons of lemon juice.
Just make sure to zest the lemon
before you squeeze the juice,
otherwise, it's very difficult to zest.
Add sugar to your strawberries, adding it to taste.
I like to start with two tablespoons
and if I'm using some sour strawberries,
I do like to add a little more.
Coarsely mash up those strawberries.
I like to use a potato masher,
but you can also use an immersion blender
just to get it to a chunky consistency.
Now, add back in the remaining one third
of your chopped strawberries,
and just stir to combine.
The larger pieces of strawberry add great texture
to this strawberry sauce.
Next, you'll need three to four ounces
of vanilla meringue cookies.
That's about 10 to 12 of these cookies.
I'm using store bought meringue cookies,
and I will leave a link to these in the recipe notes,
but you can also make crisp vanilla meringue cookies
from scratch.
Set the cookies into a zip top bag and crush them
into course crumbles.
You can use a rolling pin or the smooth side
of a meat mallet, or even a sauce pan.
I love having a blend of small, medium and larger size
crumbles for these,
and they definitely don't have to be perfect.
Now for the whipped cream,
you'll need one and a half cups of heavy whipping cream.
Get that right out of the fridge just before you start
to beat it.
Add a tablespoon of granulated sugar
and beat on medium high speed until stiff peaks form.
It's about three to four minutes.
All right, that looks perfectly whipped.
Make sure you don't over beat, or whipped cream will start
to turn buttery.
Now all that's left to do is to assemble
the Eton mess dessert.
You can use clear drinking glasses
or your serving cup of choice.
Here's how to assemble an Eton mess dessert.
Spoon some whipped cream into the bottom of the cup.
And you're gonna top that
with a generous amount of strawberry sauce.
And I love how those chunks of strawberries look
in this dessert.
Just irresistible.
Next, add some crushed meringue.
Now we're gonna repeat those layers,
adding more whipped cream.
(light music)
Top that with another generous layer of strawberry sauce
and finish it off with another layer
of crushed meringue cookies.
And I love how the syrup from the strawberries drips down
onto every layer infusing every bit of this
with so much fresh strawberry flavor.
(Natasha giggles)
I am just giddy with anticipation because I love this stuff.
It is so good.
Mm oh, I can already taste it.
Okay, I'm just gonna dive right into this
'cause I am craving this bad.
Oh, look at those layers.
And I want a little bit of everything in my spoon.
The beauty of this dessert,
is you can make all of the layers separately,
all the different parts,
and then just assemble before serving.
Or you can even assemble these and refrigerate them
an hour ahead.
After that, it still tastes good,
but the meringue gets a little bit squishy.
So I like it within the first hour of making it.
Oh my goodness, look at this.
Look at this.
Mm.
I love that this is staring back at me.
Oh, that's a big bite.
Okay, but we can handle that. (chuckles)
One word.
Wow. (laughs)
This is such a delight.
The meringue is sweet, but it's perfect,
because the whipped cream is lightly sweet,
and the strawberries are tangy and so fresh and vibrant.
'Cause remember we put a little bit
of lemon juice and lemon zest.
Do not skip that,
'cause there's not a lot of ingredients here,
so everything matters.
But the combination, I just want more.
Look at those layers!
Look at that.
It's so beautiful.
You can even make these smaller.
This recipe makes about four, but you could make eight
if you use smaller cups,
or you can scale the recipe up or down, however you like.
It's super versatile.
Perfect for parties and it is dazzling.
So cute.
Also, let me know if you found Sharky
in the video today and if you have any recipe suggestions
please let me know in the comments
and we'll see you on the next episode
of natashaskitchen.com!