Eton mess with a Greek twist: fruit, cream and broken filo pastry. Lightly whipped cream, strawberries or blueberries macerated in sugar and shards of smashed sugared filo pastry make the dream summer dessert.
Eton mess - relocated
Who doesn’t love Eton mess? For the unfortunates who never heard of it, it’s a thrashed Pavlova: meringue, cream and fruit mixed together and served in individual pots.
I have long wanted to make a variation of the dessert but was a bit lost for inspiration: sponge biscuits? you’ll get trifle. Waffles? That’ll be just waffles then. Choux pastry? Naah, save it for profiteroles.
And then this, like many of my (arguably) brilliant ideas, came to me some time early morning when I was woken up by the birds screeching, which is a serious downside of summer mornings.
Take the mess to the Greeks!
In case you incredibly didn’t guess, it’s a play on Eton mess: Eton – Athens, with bashed filo brittle instead of broken meringues.
I’m a sucker for a bad pun so I was actually lying in bed thinking of a place that would sound like Eton but carry a different cuisine connotation, and be suited to fruit and fresh cream.
Athens ticked the most boxes. Seaton rhymed better but to my knowledge, it sadly is devoid of local specialities, Seaton tramway notwithstanding.
Filo trial and error
The first attempt at the filo shards ended in overbuttered and overcaramelised filo cement. Unusable, though I scoffed the lot on its own over a couple of days, of course (sometimes it seems I do take the 'waste not, want not' adage to extremes).
At the second attempt I was much more sparing with the butter and the puffy layered sheets looked more brittle and shardable. I had to overcome the urge to devour all that lot too – sugared filo is unbelievably addictive – but luckily my output ensured leftover pastry for laters.
Greek mess is gorgeous
Seriously, this was so good that I’d be happy never to taste the Eton version ever again. After all the testing I made ten portions, served it to six people and the two of us who had to go without a second helping (me included) got stroppy and acted hard done by for the rest of the night.
Blueberry version was better, or so I was told. But maybe they just wanted to make me feel better about not getting to eat the strawberry one.
How to make filo brittle?
Make sure you work quickly as filo tends to dry out as you watch it. Be sparing though thorough buttering each sheet, likewise sprinkling with sugar.
A stack of six is about right but one or two fewer won’t make so much difference – after all, the pastry will end up smashed anyway. Which, incidentally, is a very messy (pun again!) exercise: they fly out everywhere when you break them up.
Once turned into brittle, it will keep for weeks in an airtight container so you can add it to other desserts, top fruit and ice cream with it. Or follow my example and just surreptitiously munch on it.
How to prepare the berries?
Roasted blueberries can be made well in advance; they’ll keep in the fridge for a week and can be used in all kinds of other dishes and desserts.
They become incredibly flavoursome and juicy, which is why I would always roast them for desserts. Ten minutes in the oven will suffice, the berries spread on a dish with a sprinkle of sugar. Thus prepared, they are also fabulous with porridge or overnight oats.
Strawberries are much juicier so they only need to macerate with a little sugar, thinly sliced, to release wonderful juices that will seep into cream.
Assembling the mess
Cream should be barely sweet as there is enough sweetness in the berries and the pastry crumbs. Whip it as stiff or soft as you like, fold the filo brittle through it and divide between serving bowls or cups, topping the prepared berries. And some reserved fresh ones will serve for decoration.
Serve it immediately – it won’t keep well as the filo will become soggy. But I assure you it won’t be a hardship.
More fruity desserts
Strawberry fool is the supreme of strawberries and cream, with layers of vanilla scented whipped cream and gorgeous fresh strawberry puree, barely sweetened.
Classic creamy panna cotta, the simple and exquisite Italian dessert. Vanilla flavoured, with whole milk and cream and only enough gelatine to keep it set, served with passion fruit puree.
Blueberry and cream sponge cake: blueberry Victoria sponge cake, with layers of lightly roasted blueberries and whipped cream is an easy but very impressive dessert.
More filo pastry recipes
Ice cream cones made from sweetened, layered filo pastry. Deliciously easy, they can be also filled with cream, mascarpone or custard.
Spanakopita, always mispronounced as spinakopita, is a Greek filo pastry pie with spinach and feta cheese. This is an easy recipe for classic Greek spinach pie.
Filo wrapped asparagus with Parmesan are a crunchy, golden, irresistible vegetarian snack or appetiser. Asparagus filo parcels rolled up like cigars - a must before the asparagus season ends.