ETON MESS

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Lets talk meringues. Because of them, the finished dessert should be served right away, otherwise the meringues get soft and soggy and we don't want that but you can prepare all the ingredients ahead of time and when you are ready to serve just put everything together. If you want to make this even quicker you can get store bought meringues but you know, homemade is better :). In this recipe, the amount of meringues varies on the size you pipe them, mine were about 4,5 cm long, piped with a large star tip. If you don't have a piping bag no worries, you can just put them on a baking paper with a spoon. I ended up not using all of them for eton mess. I snacked on them while making everything else, so if you get tempted to try some of them dig in! Funny thing, I never even liked them, it's just sugar, egg whites and vanilla flavor but there is something about them when they come out of the oven, must be the crunch on the outside and the inside is so soft and chewy.
The ratio of egg whites to sugar is 1:2 and the average weight of an egg white is 30 g. I actually weighed mine and the scale showed  66 g so I used 132 g of sugar but you don't have to be that specific unless you have really small or big eggs.
For best results have the egg whites at room temperature and add cream of tartar or lemon juice to help stabilize whipped egg whites.

I can't find caster sugar (also know as superfine sugar but not powdered sugar!) in out shops so I made my own by blitzing regular sugar in a food processor until it was very fine. Coffee grinder would work even better. It's especially useful for making meringues because it melts and gets incorporated into things much quicker because it's so fine. 
About mascarpone... Please just buy a good one, I accidentally bought one that tasted like plastic and just... no.

This recipe makes 5 glasses of eton mess, so if you are making it for only 2 persons split the recipe in half.

Ingredients

Meringues
2 egg whites

125 g caster sugar 

1/2 tsp cream of tartar (or lemon juice)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mascarpone cream
250 g mascarpone cheese
300 g heavy cream
50 g powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla seeds

150 g chopped strawberries

Strawberry puree 
150 g strawberries
2 tsp sugar
zest of 1 lemon (or orange)
juice of 1/2 lemon (or whole, according to taste)

Instructions 

Meringues  Preheat oven to 150°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the egg whites (starting on low speed) and when they start to foam add cream of tartar and vanilla extract then gradually add sugar. Whisk them on high speed until you get stiff peaks and the sugar is dissolved. Pipe them on baking paper around 4,5 cm big and bake them 20-25 min. They are done when you can lift them of the parchment paper without them sticking.

Mascarpone cream
While meringues are baking you can make the mascarpone cream. In a bowl mix mascarpone cheese so it becomes smooth then add cream while whisking. Whisk for about 2 min and then add powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix for 2 min or until sugar is dissolved.

Puree
For the puree just put all the ingredients in a pan and heat until strawberries soften so you can puree them with immersion blender or just a normal blender.

Assemble
At this point you can just make a real mess and fold all of the components together and that's it! But I like my Eton mess slightly less messy so I made it in layers. Roughly crumble half of the meringues and 3 tbsp of puree into mascarpone and slightly fold. Crumble the other half of the meringues in a separate bowl (you don't have to use all of them). Make layers in a bigger bowl or in smaller glasses: some puree, cream, crumbled meringues, cream, chopped strawberries, puree, cream, crumbled meringues, strawberries, puree.

Enjoy ^^