eton mess

strawberries and cream are delicious together. add in crushed meringue, and it gets even sweeter. for sweet tooths like me, sweeter = better. eton mess is a  cool, creamy, and rich dessert. it's simple to make and a treat to eat.

on several occasions, the geek has announced that he does not like meringue. we'll see how he likes this; if he doesn't, it just means there is more for me!

adapted from nigella lawson's eton mess recipe (and reader comments) on foodnetwork.com. for more information on the history of this dessert and it's name, see this wikipedia article.


equipment
electric mixer (or a whisk and a resilient arm)

ingredients

• 2 cups of chopped fresh strawberries
• 1/2 teaspoon good quality balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon raw sugar (white sugar or vanilla sugar are fine too)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• about 2 oz (or 60 grams) meringues, crushed (i used 8 vanilla meringues from trader joes)

directions

1. in a medium bowl, mash a few strawberries pieces with a fork to create a juicy pulp. add the rest of the strawberries in and toss them with the balsamic vinegar and sugar and set aside.
2. whip the heavy cream until thick. it should still be soft, so we're not trying for stiff peaks here. (although, looking at that wikipedia picture, i could have stood to whip it a little longer!)
3. gently fold the crushed meringues into the whipped cream. reserve 1/2 cup of strawberries. gently fold  the remaining strawberries to the whipped cream mixture.  
4. spoon the mixture into individual serving dishes and top each with the reserved strawberries. serve immediately.

serves 4 (1 cup servings). since this dessert is rich and sweet, a little goes a long way for us.

notes

• for a larger group, serve in a large bowl/serving dish and allow folks to serve themselves.
• if not served immediately, the meringue loses it's crunch. it's still delicious though!
• other fruit can be substituted in here. any fruit that would taste good with ice cream would do well here. update: i made it again with raspberries and it was tasty! (12 oz of raspberries-a few mashed, the rest whole- and 2 tablespoons of white sugar, no balsamic vinegar, everything else was the same as above).