A wintry Eton Mess

Swapping strawberries with bananas in a classic British dessert.

There is a certain person whose name has come up a lot in the news recently. I find him quite unpleasant. It’s also worth noting that his name bears resemblance to a classic British dessert that I’ve always been curious about, the Eton Mess. I’ve never been curious enough to look up what it was, but I decided it was finally time to stop doomscrolling and give this bake a try.

My first stop was this BBC Good Food recipe. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from people on baking TikTok, it’s to only bake with fruit that is in season. Sadly, strawberries — a key ingredient in this recipe — are not. It is nearing winter as I write this. But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I did a quick search for “fruit in season now” and decided this might just work with bananas. This recipe is pretty forgiving since it’s a messy layering of various yummy things, and this swap worked surprisingly well. Here are the results:

A banana Eton Mess. The bottom layer is a mix of fresh banana, caramelized banana, and crushed meringue. The middle layer is whipped cream. It is topped with another small layer of the banana mixture and more pieces of meringue.

If you want to replicate this wintry banana version of the dessert, follow the BBC Good Food recipe and in place of strawberries use my steps for bananas:

1. Slice 2 medium sized bananas into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick pieces. Heat a slice of butter on a frying pan over medium heat, then place the banana slices on the pan. Sprinkle some brown sugar over the bananas (about 2 tablespoons). When the bottoms of the banana slices have turned a dark brown (3-4 minutes), flip them and fry for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and place in a bowl, then mash with a spoon. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and a few drizzles of honey and water until the mixture is slightly thinner. You will use this in place of the “strawberry sauce” referenced in the original recipe.

2. Chop 4 medium sized bananas into small pieces. You will use this in place of the chopped strawberries in the original recipe.

3. I found the assembly process in step 2 of the recipe to be a bit confusing. To assemble, I mixed together the fresh banana, crushed meringue, and caramelized banana. Then I added a layer of whipped cream, followed by a small layer of the banana + meringue mixture. And I topped with a few pieces of the remaining crushed meringue.

Here’s a spoonful:

If you made this, or if you didn’t and just want to say hi, leave a comment! And if you’re into videos, check out my TikTok on this recipe.