Speed sweet – Cherry Eton Mess – short cuts or not?

I said earlier that you could short cut two elements or even all four!

The short cuts

Amaretti biscuits

Good quality Amaretti biscuits are a great product – they have a long shelf life which I why I buy mine. Keep your eyes peeled for deals – you get what you pay for these days and these biscuits are not cheap.

Buy ready made chocolate truffles

Buy a drum of ready made meringue kisses

Buy ready made compote in either jars or sachets

Each of the above products is an excellent “emergency” store cupboard ingredient – a speed sweet at your fingertips!

Or not!

I stand by why I said – I buy my Amaretti biscuits, you can make your own but in this instance I want a stash of biscuits in my store cupboard and home made will not last – delicious though they'll be!

Making your own ganache

There are 3 options :

Equal parts chocolate and cream

While still warm this ganache is pourable and can be used to drizzle chocolate ribbons or glaze cookies or cakes. It can also be used as a cake filling. As it starts to cool it thickens and takes on a more spreadable consistency.

Two parts chocolate to one part cream

Increasing the percentage of chocolate makes for a thicker ganache. This ratio is used for truffles. Can also be used as a glaze or piped frosting.

Two parts cream to one part chocolate

A ganache with more cream than chocolate is runny – warm and mousse like at room temp. When warm it can be poured over a cake to give a glaze.

I used equal parts of chocolate and cream – i.e. 300ml of double cream to 300g of plain chocolate drops. I find semi-sweet 50% ish cocoa solids hits the “middle for diddle” and gives a rich truffle texture and flavour.

To make your own meringue kisses

see Sweet week – take 2 25/2/17 Let the meringues begin for all the meringue stuff including hints and tips and a complete photo guide

To make your own compote

see What to serve with Desserts 17/2/19

There's a step by step assembly and photo guide coming next!