Eton Mess with Fresh Cherries

Crumbled, crispy meringue, light whipped cream and fresh sweet black cherries combined together are my twist on the classic British dessert known as Eton Mess.

According to my research, Eton Mess was a dessert that originated from Eton College in the UK. While I have discovered numerous narratives that try to identify the exact creation of the dessert, I have settled it within me to let the story remain unsettled, if you know what I mean. Could it have been the school kids that combined all of these ingredients together into a beautiful mess, or could it have been the cafeteria staff that decided to make a new creation or was it a beautiful accident in the culmination of 3 delicious ingredients coming together to form a heavenly dessert delight? I don’t know, but Eton Mess is one of those dessert urban legends that recipe dream books are made of. I like that it’s a mystery. In fact, I relish in the mystery.

Traditionally, Eton Mess is always prepared with fresh, ripe strawberries. But since I LOVE cherries and made this recipe during cherry season, it was to my delight to use cherries. I also took complete creative liberty to write a recipe that I would find delicious and thus why I included other flavor elements like the juice and marmalade. Feel free to choose your preferred fruit because I find that with whipped cream and meringue cookies, you really can’t go wrong.

Here’s my recipe:

Erica’s Eton Mess with Fresh Cherries

• 1 1/4 cups fresh cherries
• 1-2 TBSP white sugar
• 2 TBSP cherry juice
• 1 TBSP raspberry marmalade
• 1 1/2 cups crumbled meringue (either store-bought or made from scratch)
• 1 1/2 -2 cups of lightly sweetened whipped cream (I made my whipped cream at home)

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine together the cherries and sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Then add the cherry juice and raspberry marmalade and stir until well combined.

In a separate bowl, crumble the meringue into bite size pieces.

Then add the meringue piece and whipped cream into the cherry mixture and gently fold everything together until it is well combined.

Serve in beautiful glasses and top with a few more cherries on top.

Heavenly…trust me…Heavenly.

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