Plum Eton Mess Recipe

For a stunning dinner party dessert, this plum Eton mess should be your go-to autumn dessert. In season from August through to October, this is the perfect way to use them up if you've got a glut of plums.

Depending on the size of your serving dish, you might need to up or down-scale the ingredients, but bear in mind this dessert is super moreish, so we'd make sure to have a big glass bowl, because guests are sure to ask for seconds (or even thirds!).

Eton mess is usually made with strawberries but we think that when plums are in season it's really nice to make the most of them, rather than have to make them into a jam, for example. This is the kind of dessert that doesn't take too long to make and as long as you have all your ingredients ready to go, you can construct it right before you want to dish it up.

It doesn't have to be perfect appearance-wise. This is the great thing about a "mess" - you can get it a little bit wrong and you can make a bit of a mess and it doesn't matter because it's meant to look like that! If you've got more time on your hands, you can even make your own meringue, which is a lot easier than you might think and worth doing if you want to go that extra mile for your guests!

How to make Plum Eton Mess

Ingredients

• 40g butter
• 40g caster sugar
• 100g pecan nuts
• 450ml double cream
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• 12 plums, halved, de-stoned and sliced
• 4-6 meringues
• 4-5tbsp pomegranate molasses

You will need

• A large glass serving bowl

Method

1. Gently melt the butter and sugar in a large frying pan then add the pecans and stir to coat. Tip out onto a piece of baking parchment to cool. Lightly whip the cream with the vanilla until it forms soft peaks.

2. To assemble, crunch some meringues in the base of your dish. Add a layer of plums, some cream, more crushed meringue and then the remaining cream. Add more slices of plums, top with the pecans then drizzle over the pomegranate molasses.