Eton Mess ice cream sundae recipe

There are numerous variations to this classic English treat: this is mine.

Timings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 2-3 minutes

Serves

Four

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 100g strawberries, hulled and chopped

• 50g raspberries

• 35g icing sugar

To assemble

• 250g good-quality vanilla ice cream

• 30g bought meringues, broken into chunks

• 300g strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered (depending  on size) plus a few small ones for decoration

Method

1. To make the sauce, put the fruit and icing sugar in a small saucepan with 100ml water and gently heat.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until the strawberries have started to soften. You don’t want to cook the fruit too much, otherwise it becomes ‘jammy’ in flavour.

2. Transfer to a food processor (not a blender) and whizz to a purée. Taste for sweetness (as this will be used with other sweet ingredients, it should be quite tart). Push the purée through a nylon sieve.

3. Layer the ice cream, crushed meringues, fresh strawberry pieces and fruit sauce in sundae glasses. Finish with a single small, or two very small, strawberries on top.