Baking On The Hottest Day Of The Year

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I do not know why I thought it was a good idea, but on the hottest day of the year, I decided it made sense to make dessert, and not just for me but for a whole bunch of friends. When it is this hot I try to make things as simple as possible which generally means keeping the oven off or at least off as much as possible. No heavy lifting here, I want simple and easy. But for some reason, I decided to make meringue. Did I already say it was the hottest day of the year? And incredibly humid? Know what the one thing you don’t want when making meringues? Yep…humidity. But don’t worry, I’ll get to that in a little bit.

To use the meringue, I opted to make a British classic, done in a more modern manner. Eton mess is a classic British dessert, made up of strawberries, meringue and cream. The mess part of the name is an obvious nod to the dessert's messy nature: broken meringue is layered with cream and chopped strawberries to make a delicious mess. The Eton part of the name is clear to most Brits, but may be a little murkier to those who don’t know the inner workings of our private school system. Eton is one of, if not the, most expensive schools in the country and is known as the centre of privilege and wealth, as well as the school that has spawned 20 of the UK’s Prime Ministers. The story goes that the dessert was created when a pavlova, which was to be served at a cricket match in the 1920’s (or 30’s in some tellings), was dropped, making a mess. Some stories somehow involve a Labrador causing the accident, but it seems like these stories are apocryphal, as the first written mention of the dessert is in 1893, when a strawberry Eton mess was served to the queen.

Whilst the dessert is traditionally made with strawberries, many different versions exist, and this particular one is incredibly summery, made with raspberries, passion fruit, and hazelnuts, along with the usual suspects of cream and meringue. That cream is also not traditional, as it is made with the addition of white chocolate. Altogether, it is a fabulous, really easy dessert when you need something for a crowd. This is often served spooned into individual bowls, but I prefer to serve it family-style on a large platter; it looks so much more attractive. If you’re also someone who really enjoys Wimbledon, there is nothing more appropriate for watching the finals weekend, although making it with strawberries instead of raspberries would be more fitting.

When it comes to making meringue in this sort of heat, there are a couple of things that help. Firstly, adding cream of tartar or lemon juice to the egg whites is a non-negotiable; the acid helps stabilise the meringue. I also never make a French meringue on this type of day; this sort of meringue is, from my experience, much more prone to weeping, and we really want to ensure every grain of sugar is dissolved in the egg whites. Instead, use a Swiss or Italian meringue. Secondly, the baking time will always be a very big suggestion. Meringue has to be dried out, which is done by baking at a low temperature for a long time. When it is humid, this can take much longer, so whilst it normally takes an hour or two to dry out, on these days, who knows. To ensure the meringue becomes dry and crisp, I bake it for about an hour and a half, then instead of switching off the oven as I would usually, I actually switch it to the dehydrate mode, which operates at a very low 60ºC and helps dry off any excess moisture, giving a perfectly crisp meringue. I leave the meringues in the oven on this low setting for as long as necessary for them to feel completely dry and crisp. If you are going to be storing these for longer than a couple of hours, try to put them in a cool, dry spot, and, if you have any, pop a couple of desiccant packages into the container to absorb any moisture that gets in.