Berry Eton Mess Cheesecake
I think the dishes I love the most are the ones that look the most amazing and yet are the simplest to make, this is one of those.
A deep filled cheesecake topped with a layer of fresh strawberry coolie and then tons of fresh, chocolate dipped, strawberries and blackberries. If that’s not enough to excite my sweet toothed families tastebuds, add all those pretty stripped meringues into the spaces left behind.
To be honest, this dessert isn’t too sweet, its just an indulgent decedent great to look at pudding that gets my family smiling.
For great tips, don’t forget to scroll to the tip box at the end of the recipe.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Decorate with all the berries and meringue
What You Need
800g Full Fat Cream Cheese
600g Strawberries
500g Caramelised Biscuits – See Tip Box
450ml Double Cream
200g Fresh Blackberries
200g Dark Chocolate
150g White Chocolate
150g Butter – Melted
120g Icing Sugar
120g Castor Sugar
2 Large Egg Whites
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Red Food Colouring - Optional - See Tip Box
Before adding the castor sugar, whip the egg whites until stiff and doubled in size.
How It’s Done
Mini Meringues
Set the oven to 100c
Place the egg whites in to a very clean grease free bowl and whip them until they get frothy and double in size.
Keeping the machine on, add the castor sugar to the eggs, one tablespoon at a time, making sure that each of the table spoons of sugar have incorporate completely before adding the next. – See Tip Box
Keep whipping the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and the bowl can be held upside down without falling out - See Tip Box
Add the castor sugar one tablespoon at a time
Take a piping bag, snip the end off and fit a small star nozzle.
Take a tooth pick and dip it into the red food colouring.
Stroke the inside of the bag with the food colouring to make thin stripes.
Its optional to add coloured stripes to the piping bag
Fill the piping bag with the meringue and twist the top pf the bag to keep the meringue inside.
Cover a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and pipe different sizes of meringues on to it, leaving a space between each. Keep the largest of the of the piped meringues no bigger than a large olive.
Place the tray in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
After the hour is up, switch off the oven and let the tray stay in the oven for no less than 1 hour while the oven cools. Leave overnight if possible, in the unopened oven.
Make the mini meringues different sizes.
You need a 9’ loose bottomed round, high sided tin.
Rub all of the inside with butter and then cut out a circle of non-stick baking parchment, and place it in the bottom of the tin.
Set it aside until needed
Crush the biscuits until they resemble breadcrumbs, either by using a food processor or placing the biscuits into a bag, and hitting with something heavy.
Place the crumbs into a bowl, add the melted butter and mix really well until all the crumbs are coated in the butter and it’s absorbed.
Put the crumb mixture into the prepared tin, and using the back of a small cup, compress the crumbs up the sides of the tin and on the bottom.
This will take some time, and needs to be firmly compressed and an even thickness.
Spend time to compress the biscuit mix up the sides.
Place the tin in the fridge and let it cool until the butter has set, around 30 minutes.
Place the double cream, 100g icing sugar and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until stiff peaks are formed – Keep a close watch so it doesn’t get over whipped.
Place the cream cheese in a separate bowl, and use a fork to break it up.
Fold the whipped double cream into the cream cheese until really well mixed together.
Fill the biscuit base up with the cream mixture and level the top.
Place the tin back into the fridge for at least 3 hours, or overnight is even better.
Fill with the cheesecake mixture and make it smooth
Sauce
Place 200g of the strawberries, 1 tsp of lemon juice and 20g of icing sugar into a small food processor and whizz until it becomes a liquid.
Sit a fine mesh strainer over a small bowl, and pour the strawberry mix into it.
Push the strawberry coolie through the sieve, removing all of the pips.
Place it in the fridge until ready to use.
Pass the coolie through a sieve to remove the pips.
Decorations.
Melt the dark chocolate in one bowl and the white chocolate in a separate bowl, either in the microwave or sitting bowls of the broken up chocolate over a pan of boiling water.
Let the melted chocolate cool for a minute, and then dip the bottom half of the blackberries in the white chocolate and the bottom half of the strawberries in the dark chocolate, laying them on sheets of non-stick parchment paper to set up and get cold.
Lay the dipped berries onto some non-stick parchment to set up
Assemble
When ready to eat the cheesecake, pour some of the coolie over the top. Try to keep the coolie just on the cheesecake mixture
Carefully open the tin and release the cheesecake and remove the tin.
Run a very long thin knife, between the non-stick baking parchment and the bottom of the cheesecake, do this very carefully so the base doesn’t break.
Gently push the cheesecake onto a serving plate.
Add a layer of the coolie when ready to serve.
Place the chocolate dipped strawberries and blackberries, decoratively on the top and fill in any gaps with the different sized mini meringues.
Serve with a small jug of the extra strawberry coolie so that it can be poured over individual slices.
Store the cheesecake in the fridge, but remove it 20 minutes before serving.
Looks great and tastes deliciou.
Tip Box
Biscuits – Using caramelised biscuits as a base, gives even more luxury to this cheesecake. But if you can’t get your hands in them, use digestive biscuits instead.
Adding sugar to egg whites – Take time with this stage.
Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time, and let it be incorporated completely before adding the next.
When the meringue is ready, it should be firm peaks, able to hold its own weight without falling out of the bowl when it is held upside down.
If you dip your finger into the finished whipped meringue, there should be no feeling of gritty sugar, which is why only adding one tablespoon at a time helps.
Food Colouring - It’s up to you if you want to use food colouring to make stripy mini meringues. They do look effective, but not habing them coloured, doesn’t effect the flavour of them.
Yumm
