Eton Mess Ice Cream Clusters

- Strawberries. Just a smaller punnet will do, you only need 150g of strawberries.
- Raspberries. A small 150g pack of raspberries is all you'll need.
- Cream. You'll need 300ml whipping or double cream (heavy cream US).
- Meringue nests. An 8 pack of shop-bought meringue nests, you should be able to find these in all UK supermarkets. You can use meringue shells if you can't. In the US they are trickier to find, you may have to use vanilla meringue cookies.
- White chocolate. You'll need 2-3 bars (400g / 14.11oz) to cover the 10 large ice cream clusters. If you want to make less, see the FAQ below about making a smaller batch.
- Other ingredients:
1) a teaspoon of granulated sugar.
2) coconut oil, which is optional, you'll add to the white chocolate before you melt it, it helps to keep the chocolate smooth and stop it from seizing.
3) another optional ingredient; freeze-dried raspberry or strawberry sprinkles, which I get from Tesco. If you can't find these, no problem go ahead without - they are more for aesthetics than adding a a ton of flavour.

When you dip something frozen, like ice cream, into melted white chocolate, the sudden temperature shock and tiny amount of surface moisture can cause the chocolate to seize almost instantly. Frozen desserts naturally collect condensation as they sit out, and even a very thin layer of ice crystals or water droplets is enough to upset white chocolate's delicate balance. Because white chocolate contains lots of sugar and milk solids but no cocoa solids, it reacts very quickly to that moisture, turning thick, clumpy or grainy instead of flowing smoothly around the ice cream.

Dark chocolate is usually much more forgiving in this situation because it contains a higher percentage of cocoa solids and less milk powder. The cocoa solids help stabilise the melted chocolate, so it can better handle the cold surface and tiny traces of moisture from the ice cream without immediately seizing. That's why dark chocolate coatings often set into a thin crisp shell quite easily, while white chocolate can suddenly become stiff and difficult to work with halfway through dipping.

While the quality of these ice cream clusters is at is peak during the first 4 weeks, these can be stored in the freezer safely, indefinitely. After 4 weeks the crisp of the white chocolate may fade and the ice cream filling may develop some ice crystals. Always store these Eton Mess Ice Cream Clusters in an air-tight food container or freezer bag.

You could halve the recipe if you like, but I would recommend if you don't want 10 large Eton Mess Ice Cream Clusters, I would instead freeze half or more of the mixture as clusters, and then just eat the rest of the Eton Mess as a dessert, chilled. The Eton Mess will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for two days (make day + 1). If you do want to do that, you can buy less white chocolate.

You could but I need to warn you of a few things;
1) The white chocolate to Eton Mess ice cream filling ratio will be off, so you will have more white chocolate to ice cream filling, which is fine if you can't get enough white chocolate, but personally I prefer the balance that you get with making the 10 larger clusters.
2) Because this recipe makes enough for 10 clusters which are larger than lolly/popsicles, you are going to need several moulds to make these. Alternatively, you could halve the recipe.
3) You're going to have to coat the moulds in the white chocolate, as if you make lollies from the mixture you won't then be able to dip them in the white chocolate without it seizing. So doing it this way is going to be more time-consuming.

These Eton Mess Ice Cream Clusters are suitable for vegetarians and gluten and nut-free diets, so long as the meringue and white chocolate packets says so. They are NOT suitable for vegans or those with an egg or diary allergy.