It’s already November!? I couldn’t believe 2012 is almost coming to an end. I felt like 2012 just started not long ago. Is it just me or are you also having the very same thought? Thanksgiving is around the corner and I have many blessings in my life to be grateful for this year. Hehe….no, I’m not so ahead of myself and post a Thanksgiving post now at the beginning of November. I just wanted to say, I’m so lucky and thankful to be living in California, where I basically can enjoy these sweet and juicy strawberries almost all year round. Of course, besides being grateful for the strawberries, I’m always grateful for my friends, my family, my readers and chocolate (although not necessarily in this order).
Recently, one of my customers ordered these Dark Chocolate Strawberry Meringue Roses. It’s a recipe I originally posted back in February of 2011. I make these meringue roses from time to time. It just happened that the day that I needed to make these meringue roses for delivery, it was a rainy day! If you’ve made meringues on a rainy day before, you know just how much fun I was having.
I had to bake these roses for an extra long time and keep them in the fridge at all times to keep them nice and crisp. Luckily, I’ve received very positive feedback. Phew….If you haven’t try these meringue roses, you should! They are light, crisp, packed with sweet and tart strawberry flavors (with freeze fried strawberries in them). However, instead of using chocolate chips (as stated in the originally recipe), I chopped up some Valrhona 70% dark chocolate and melt them in the double boiler instead. Yes, the Valrhona is more expensive than packaged chocolate chips, but totally worth it. You can taste the difference in them. And the (correctly tempered) chocolate layer simply adds another layer of crunch that you don’t get from packaged chocolate chips! The extra time to temper the chocolate is totally worth it as well.
I can’t help myself but to make another batch of these Dark Chocolate Strawberry Meringue Roses for my kids. These are one of their favorite treats. Instead of eating them as is, I transformed them into Eton Mess.
Eton Mess is a traditional English dessert consists of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream. Back in the 1930s, Eton Mess was served at Eton College’s annual cricket game against the students of Harrow School, hence the name.
Are you still here? Just checking. Enough with the history, let’s get into the kitchen and make a mess…I mean, make a Eton Mess.
1) First, let’s prepared the strawberry sauce. Place 1 pound of the whole strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a medium sauce pan. With a potato masher, crushed the strawberries over medium-high heat.
2) Add the fresh thyme leaves now…but don’t be like me, take the leaves off the stems so you don’t have to “fish” the stems out later on, or simply tie the whole thing with a kitchen twine for easy retrieval. Bring the mixture to a full boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is syrupy. While the mixture is cooking, sliced the remaining one pound of strawberries.
3) Remove from heat and add the sliced strawberries.
4) Then, stir in the framboise liqueur. Let cool completely and chill in refrigerator.
When the strawberry syrup is cooled, whip the heavy cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff peak form. To assemble the dessert:
1) Spoon a couple tablespoons of strawberry syrup into a tall glass.
2) Top with some freshly whipped cream.
3) Crush some strawberry meringues on top.
4) Spoon more strawberry syrup on the meringue.
5) More whipped cream.
6) Top with some more meringue (crush or not). It’s easier to eat if you crush them, but it makes a more beautiful presentation if you leave the meringue roses whole.
If you wonder how to pipe the meringue roses, here’s a picture to show you how. I used a Wilton 1M star tip. Starting in the middle and gently press the meringue batter and makes 2 full circles as the arrows shown below.
This “dressed up” Eton Mess is simply divine. Imagine this, refreshing strawberry syrup with a hint of citrus, layer with freshly whipped cream and crunchy strawberry meringue cookies...that were dipped in dark chocolate! Oh my, I need serious help here not to finish the whole batch all by myself. These are fun dessert to make for your upcoming family gatherings too. Simply have all the components prepared ahead of time and have the guests put their own desserts together.
Yes, it’s more fun to eat when they get to make their own glass….and less work for you. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy today’s recipe.
