Eton Mess and Any Time for Treats

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berry sauce, Dessert, Easy dessert, egg white, Eton mess, fast dessert, Meringue, Meringue cookies, whipping cream

Now, let’s clear this. Sometimes it’s not necessary to spend time making an impressive dessert when your organs urgently shiver demanding a sugar shot.

even if you are looking forward to your guests with unstinting enthusiasm, you may suddenly think that a chapter devoted to making dessert after preparing a good night dinner is going to complicate your life.

But no, it’s precisely intended to make it easier.

The name eton mess does’nt mean mess as not good, it’s an accidental creation of a dessert. That has been told that the name came when Eton college player crushed a picnic basket filled with cream, meringue, and struaberry sauce, those ingredient came together in a complimentary messy dessert.

Eton Mess is a lightly sweet, old-fashioned British dessert made by blending whipped cream with freshly crushed berries and crisp meringue. It’s simple and convenient dessert that you can do the ingredient a time ahead, then assemble once you want to serve. And to make it more easy and fast preparing dessert you may use store-bought meringues instead of homemade.

The most challengeable step in making eton mess is making the meringue. The key to making meringue cookies is beating the egg whites. Here are some tips on the best way to achieve a good meringue cookies:

1. Start with egg whites at room temperature.

2. Be sure the bowl and beaters are spotlessly clean, especially from oil. Clean the bowl occasionally with lemon juice or white vinegar to prevent any film of oil from developing on the surface.

3. Do not use aluminum or plastic bowls.

4. Be sure the eggs are at the soft peak stage before adding sugar. And be sure the egg whites look white, not yellow. At the soft peak stage, egg whites are shiny and when you lift the beater, the whites lift up and then rather gracefully curve over slightly

5. Do not beat the eggs too quickly. This may be the most common mistake, and the one that causes meringues to deflate. When you whip whites at a high speed, both large and small air bubbles form and the large ones burst‚ which causes flattening.

6. Meringues crack when they cool too quickly. Leave them in the oven after baking (with the oven turned off) to slow the cooling process and help avoid the cracks

Meringue Cookies:

3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup superfine or caster sugar (if you don’t have superfine sugar simply take granulated white sugar and process it for about 30 seconds in a food processor)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (105 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of your oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks.

Add the sugar, a little at a time, and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract. (Note: The meringue is done when it holds stiff peaks and when you rub a little between your thumb and index finger it does not feel gritty. If it feels gritty the sugar has not fully dissolved so keep beating until it feels smooth between your fingers.)

Before placing the cookies on the cookie sheet, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding. Then, using two spoons or decoration bag, place 10 equal sized mounds of meringue onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the meringues for approximately 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, rotating the baking sheet from front to back (about half way through) to ensure even baking. The meringues are done when they are pale in color and fairly crisp. Turn off the oven, open the door a crack, and leave the meringues in the oven to finish drying overnight.

Meringue Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

Mascarponi Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1/2 cup mascarponi cheese at room temperature

In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, mascarponi, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form. If not using right away, cover and place in the refrigerator. (The whipped cream can be made several hours in advance.)

berry Sauce:

1 cup fresh strawberries
1 cup mixwd berry fresh or frozen (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry)
4 tablespoons granulated white sugar, or to taste

Place about one third of the strawberries in your food processor and process until just pureed. Alternatively, you can crush them with a potato masher or fork. Add the frozen berry mix along with pureed strauberry in a pot at low heat. Sprinkle the granulated white sugar over the berries, stir to combine and cook for 15 minutes. Cut the rest of the strawberries into bite size pieces and add to the cooked berries.(can be made about one hour before assembling the Eton Mess).

To assemble the Eton Mess: Break meringue cookies into bite size pieces. Then fold the strawberries and meringue cookies into the whipped cream. Place in pretty dessert bowls or long stemmed glasses. Serve immediately.

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Orange flavored Chocolate Marquise for May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge

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almond, caramel, chocolate, coco powder, cocolate marquise, daring baker, Dessert, fancy dessert, mango, may 2011 challenge, Meringue, orange chocolate, peanuts, popcorn, strawberry

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

This is my first daring challenge, and wow… what a challenge. I never tasted the chocolate marquise before or even know it. Thank you Emma and jenny for sharing the recipe.

The Chocolate Marquise to me looks like frozen chocolate mousse or soft ice-cream when it melt. very delicious rich chocolate flavor smooth and sweet. can be served a long with different flavors, just make sure it complement with the chocolate.

In my version of chocolate marquise tried to substitute the tequila with the orange juice and add zest of orange to enhance more orange flavor hmm yummy… and omit the cayenne, the meringue looks really like marshmallow cream.

I did the quarter recipe and it was considered huge for my little family, so I served half of it and kept the rest in the freezer for another serving (it can be frozen up to six months).

The first time served it with fresh mango and strawberry salad, it adds more freshness to the chocolate. The second with roasted peanuts – caramel popcorn and it was wonderful, the popcorn adds crunching and saltines to harmony with the caramel (every ones favourit)and completed with the creamy chocolate and the meringue.

Here is my presentations:

Chocolate Marquise with Fresh Mango and Strawberry Salad 

The Chocolate Marquise with the meringue topped with the fruit salad, roasted almond, caramel sauce.

Prepare the pan and line it with parchment papers.

For the Chocolate Marquise (the quarter recipe) :

3 large egg yolks at room temperature
1 large egg
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon  water
Chocolate Base, barely warm (recipe follows)
½ cup  heavy cream
½ cup Dutch process cocoa powder (for rolling)

For the Chocolate Base:

3 oz  bittersweet chocolate (I used cherardelli 60% coco)
1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons  heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon orange juice
zest of an orange
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon/(less than 1/4 ounce) cocoa powder (we used extra brut, like Hershey’s Special Dark, but any Dutch-processed cocoa would be fine. Do not substitute natural cocoa powder.)
dash freshly ground black pepper
1/4 oz unsalted butter (1/2 tablespoon), softened

Begin with the chocolate base to let it cool down a little to use it in the marquise recipe.

Place the chocolate in a small mixing bowl.

In a double-boiler, warm the cream until it is hot to the touch (but is not boiling). Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.

Allow it to sit for a minute or two before stirring. Stir until the chocolate is melted completely and is smooth throughout.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

Set aside until cooled to room temperature. Do not refrigerate, as the base needs to be soft when added to the marquise mixture. If you make it the day before, you may need to warm it slightly. Whisk it until it is smooth again before using it in the marquise recipe

Continue with the Chocolate Marquise recipe, in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Whip on high-speed until very thick and pale, about 10 – 15 minutes.

When the eggs are getting close to finishing, make a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring the syrup to a boil  (235F/115C).

With the mixer running on low-speed, drizzle the sugar syrup into the fluffy eggs, trying to hit that magic spot between the mixing bowl and the whisk.

When all the syrup has been added (do it fairly quickly), turn the mixer back on high and whip until the bowl is cool to the touch. This will take at least 10 minutes.

In a separate mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Set aside.
When the egg mixture has cooled, add the chocolate base to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Try to get it as consistent as possible without losing all the air you’ve whipped into the eggs. We used the stand mixer for this, and it took about 1 minute.

Fold 1/3 of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Pour into the prepared pans and cover with plastic wrap (directly touching the mixture so it doesn’t allow in any air).

Freeze until very firm, at least 2 – 4 hours (preferably 6 – 8 hours).
When you’re ready to plate, remove the marquise from the freezer at least 15 minutes before serving. While it’s still hard, remove it from the pan by pulling on the parchment ‘handles’  or by flipping it over into another piece of parchment.

Plate with the torched meringue and drizzled caramel sauce, and toss spiced almonds and cocoa nibs around for garnish. You want to handle the cubes as little as possible because they get messy quickly and are difficult to move. However, you want to wait to serve them until they’ve softened completely. The soft pillows of chocolate are what make this dessert so unusual and when combined with the other elements, you’ll get creamy and crunchy textures with cool, spicy, salty, bitter, and sweet sensations on your palate

For the torched meringue:

3 large egg whites
1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon  sugar
Splash of apple cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the egg whites, sugar and vinegar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your (clean, washed) hand, reach in the bowl and stir the three together, making sure the sugar is moistened evenly by the egg whites and they make a homogeneous liquid.

Over a saucepan of simmering water, warm the egg white mixture. Use one hand to stir the mixture continuously, feeling for grains of sugar in the egg whites. As the liquid heats up, the sugar will slowly dissolve and the egg whites will thicken. This step is complete when you don’t feel any more sugar crystals in the liquid and it is uniformly warm, nearly hot.

Remove the mixing bowl from the saucepan and return it to the stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk until you reach soft peaks. In the last 10 seconds of mixing, add the vanilla to the meringue and mix thoroughly.

When you’re ready to plate the dessert, spoon the meringue into a plate (or use a piping bag) and use a blowtorch to broil.

For the Caramel sauce:

1 cup sugar
1\2 cup water
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1\4 teaspoon lemon juice fresh
1 cup heavy cream

In a pan put the sugar then the water, let the sugar soak and try to wipe any sugar on the sides of the pan (because if sugar didn’t desolve completely it will crystallize),bring it to boil on medium – high heat until almost all the water evaporates and the sugar Carmelites to a dark mahogany color.

Add the corn syrup and the lemon juice, working quickly, add the cream to the darkened caramel. It will bubble and pop vigorously, so add only as much cream as you can without overflowing the pot.

Return the pot to the stove on low heat and whisk gently to break up any hardened sugar. Add any remaining cream and continue stirring. Gradually, the hard sugar will dissolve and the caramel sauce will continue to darken.  When the caramel has darkened to the point you want it, remove it from the heat. Add the salt and stir to combine. Set aside until ready to serve.

For the Spiced almonds:

Makes about 1 cup of spiced almonds

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white
1 cup blanched whole almonds

reheat the oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon,and salt.

In a larger mixing bowl whisk the egg white until it’s frothy and thick.

Add the spice mix to the egg white and whisk to combine completely.

Add the nuts to the egg white mixture and toss with a spoon.

Spoon the coated nuts onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Bake the nuts for 30 minutes, or until they turn light brown. Allow the nuts to cool completely and they will get very crunchy. Set aside until ready to serve.

For the fresh mango strawberry salad:

mango diced
strawberries diced
fresh mint leaves
fresh orange juice
sugar
drops of lemon squeeze

Combine all ingredient, let it in the fridge to cool, use it fresh.

Chococlate Marquise with Roasted Peanuts Caramel Popcorn

The same recipe of the chocolate marquise as above, and the same meringue.

for the peanut caramel popcorn

Roast the peanuts either in the oven or on the pan on the top of the stove,  let it cool down a little, heat he caramel on the microwave add the popcorn and the peanuts (the caramel will harden a little).