Easy Boozy Berry Meringue Recipe for Valentine’s Day

 

These delicious meringue desserts are perfect for Valentines day. Sweet, crisp meringue nests filled with rich fresh vanilla cream and topped with juicy berries steeped in a boozy berry compote drizzled all over the top. DELICIOUS!… Plus, they are quick to make, giving you more time with your Valentine and hardly any washing up to do. WINNER!

Boozy Berry Meringues are my go to super quick dessert that I whip up for dinner parties when I have very little time (which feels like always!) but want to treat my friends and family to an elegant, tasty and great looking dessert. Call it cheating… I call it working smarter not harder!

What I also love about this dessert is that you basically ‘pimp’ your meringues with any filling you want so if berries and cream isn’t your bag you can swap out for other toppings (see below for ideas), so versatile!

If like me and we are past Christmas but still have plenty of booze in, then this is the dessert for you and lets face it, Valentine’s day is a day to treat yourself and your loved one! So for this dish I used mulled wine and winter berries but any berry liqueur would work great like raspberry (Chambord) or blackberry liqueur (crème de cassis).

No booze, no problem… A berry cordial works just as well in this dessert, I personally love the Belvoir Blackcurrant cordial, it has a great strength and flavour to it for this compote.

OK… So let’s get to the dish!

 

The Meringues

Meringue nests… I buy them!

I love to make them too but for the purpose of a quick fail-proof dessert I like to get shop bought ones (homemade meringues can be tricky…I once went through 12+ eggs making my own and then resorted to having to buy some shop bought ones… I have practiced since then!).

You can get them from most supermarkets these days, I tend to buy the ones from Marks & Spencers as I like the texture and sweetness but you can even get them from Amazon these days!

 

The Cream

This step couldn’t be easier, a pot of fresh double cream whipped up with a drizzle of vanilla bean paste… it’s that simple. Chill until ready to assemble.

 

The Boozy Berry Compote

Simply tipple a cup-full of berries (I find this is usually enough for two meringue desserts) into a saucepan. I use frozen berries, you can use fresh or frozen, it’s just that I find the frozen ones have all of the berries I need in one bag and they’re cheaper!

Then add water or diluted cordial so that the berries are almost submerge berries, a heaped tablespoon of sugar or honey for sweetness and a good squeeze of vanilla paste and begin to cook down on a low heat until the berries become all mushy. At this point I add the booze (or concentrated cordial) and continue to cook on a low heat until the mixture has reduced to the consistency you desire, I like it quite syrupy, but make sure it doesn’t burn. Then allow the mixture to cool down.

 

Assembling

Grab your meringue nests, cream and compote. Heap the cream into the meringue nest, add as many layers as you wish, you’ll see form the photo I went ‘double decker’ style! Once the meringue and cream layers are assembled, top with the boozy (or not) berries, et voila! You are done.

For a little extra texture I added some crumbled ginger biscuits over the top, the ginger was a delicious combination with the mulled wine, but you could crumble anything you wish over the top, just use your imagination.

 

Alternatives:

As I said, you can add any toppings into and onto these meringue nests, here’s some ideas:

• Ferrero Rocher – Nutella filled meringues topped with fresh cream and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and chocolate shavings, or maybe even some crushed Ferrero Rocher chocolates either on top or through the cream!

• Caramelised Biscuit – Biscoff-filled meringues topped with fresh cream and crushed biscoff biscuits and finished with a drizzle of toffee/caramel sauce. Who doesn’t like Biscoff?!

• Swirled Cream Filled Nests – Think of lemon curd, or raspberry coulis, chocolate spread swirled into fresh cream, heaped with toppings of your choice.

• Apple Pie Meringue Nests – Fill meringues with chunky apple sauce and top with custard finish of with a heap of crumble mix – I imagine the whipped custard you get in the squirty cans works excellent for this. In the past I have whipped up cream and folded custard through the cream, so tasty!

The options are endless, I’d love to hear your ideas!