Meringue and fruit trifles (Eaton Mess?)

Meringue Berry Trifle

[An alternate title for this post could have easily been "An ode to my KitchenAid"]

I thought I saw a similar dessert on some cooking show but couldn’t find it anywhere online. The basic premise was to have a healthier and lighter-feeling dessert that tasted great and was fairly easy to make and something I could make ahead. I also wanted something a little crunchy and something with fruit. So, I thought I’d make meringue for the crunchy part and stew some frozen fruit for the fruit part. But I wasn’t quite sure what the topping should be. I wanted something creamy and investigated zabaglione and decided it was too much work at this time and thus settled on whipped cream. I’ve never made whipped cream before, so it was good to learn to make it.
The best part is, you don’t have to have all these things home-made, you can assemble it from store-bought items if you’re in a pinch.  But if you choose to make these things from scratch, the recipes are below.

Dad approved!

I’ve never came up with a dessert before, and I’m not completely sure I did this time, but it was definitely a hit. Everyone cleaned their glasses, and dad even had seconds. You see, dad is really big into dessert, the Russian kind specifically (marmalade, “bird’s milk” which is marshmallow-y and typically covered in chocolate, Russian cakes, etc.). This trifle is quite far from a typical Russian dessert. So I was quite pleased that it was such a success.  Woohoo!

Ingredients for the trifle:
2 16oz. bags of frozen fruit (I had 1 bag of raspberries and 1 bag of mixed fruit with blackberries and strawberries).
1-1.5 cups of brown sugar
16-20 meringues (you can buy these or make them yourself)
splash of lemon juice
whipped cream (store bought or your own, I used this recipe)

Steps for the trifle:
1. Saute the fruit with a splash of lemon juice and strain it (I didn’t want raspberry pits to get into people’s teeth).
2. Crumble about 2 meringues into each glass (I used martini glasses).
3. Add the fruit over the meringues.
4. Add some whipped cream.
5. Repeat for as much room as you have in the glass. I repeated it once, so had 2 layers of meringues, 2 layers of fruit, and 2 layers of whipped cream.

For Meringue (from the Low Fat Low Cholesterol cookbook):
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 egg whites

1. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl, adding the sifted brown sugar a little bit at a time, until the meringue is thick and glossy and you see stiff peaks on the whisk. I used my stand mixer for this because the one time I tried it before it took a long time and my arms grew tired. I know, I’m a wimp, but it was easier with a stand mixer because I could do other things and keep an eye on the mixture.
2. Spoon the mixture onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 325 for 30 minutes. Because it’s winter and I’ve had a lot of moisture in the air from other cooking endeavors, I just turned off the oven and left the meringue in the oven overnight. It helped it crisp up enough for my current purpose.

P.S. You might have noticed that the meringues in the glass are brown but in the picture above are white. They’re actually off-white because of brown sugar and after baking, they’re a sandy-brown color.

Sift brown sugar

Egg whites whipping

Stiff Peaks of the Meringue

Spooned Meringue - not very pretty