Daring Bakers Challenge - June 2010 - Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

RARRRRRGH!!!!

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Recipe Source: Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

Blog-checking lines: The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

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My first Daring Bakers challenge and also the birth of the FRANKENMONSTER!

Some amendments I made to the recipe:

• I added up all the ingredients for the Creme Anglaise/Mascarpone Creme and it came up to over one litre of the stuff for "drizzling" ... hmmm, overkill anyone? So I halved the recipe (which also meant I had no extra egg whites as I used the yolks leftover from the meringue) and "drizzled" with a controlled and dainty pouring action (results as above) but still ended up with a good bowlful of creme which lasted for a week and was used on the remaining meringues, ice cream sundaes and Saturday morning pancakes.
• I used orange rind as I forgot to buy a lemon ...
• I added berries because I found the mousse and meringue just *that* much too sweet (yes, I have a low sweetness threshold).
• I used cinnamon instead of nutmeg (only because I had cinnamon and didn't want to buy nutmeg).

Organisation plus! Why is the rest of my life not like this?

That distressed looking orange had the other part of its rind used to replace lime zest in a fish cake recipe earlier in the week ... which was ... interesting ...

Meringues s l o w l y drying out in the oven.

As you can see, I got tired of filling my old-school piping syringe and went freeform. It was at about this point that the 'burger-style' presentation popped into my head ...
I read in the forums that some people found their meringues were done after 30 minutes or even less. However, mine took 2.5 hours or thereabouts and the 2 largest ones were still soft on the insides when I couldn't wait any longer to taste them.

Straining the creme anglaise

I had never made creme anglaise before and was quite anxious about the "do not overcook" part of the recipe. I had to get extra hands to help me pour the hot creme into the eggs as I shouted with more than a hint of paranoia "Slowly! No SLOWLY! SLOWER!!! What part of SLOW do you not understand???"

Happily, there was very little scrambled egg when I strained it. *PHEW*

BOLLOCKS!!!

My chocolate! My poor chocolate! Hands up who thinks some water may have gotten into the saucepan? (Possibly my hash job of rinsing washing the pot after making the creme anglaise would be to blame ...)

... but no harm done to the chocolate mousse

Another crisis averted, another sigh of relief ... perhaps this recipe could have been halved as well as we had enough mousse for some rather debaucherous eating habits for the next few days. Although completely smooth on the first day of consumption, the consistency of the mousse after being in the fridge became more like gelato (which is really neither here nor there when you're talking about chocolate I suppose).

Frankenmonster's Innards

Hopefully as the challenges progress I'll get better at presentation. (These were frozen berries that had been microwaved for maybe 20 seconds.)

Finito!

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Recipe 1: Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

• 3 large egg whites
• ½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
• ¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
• 1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)

Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)

Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon. (Class made rounds, hearts, diamonds and an attempt at a clover was made!)

Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe 2: Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

• 1 ½ cups (355 mls) heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
• grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
• 9 ounces (255 grams) 72% chocolate, chopped
• 1 2/3 cups (390 mls) mascarpone
• pinch of nutmeg
• 2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.

Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)

Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Recipe 3: Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

• 1 recipe crème anglaise
• ½ cup (120 mls) mascarpone
• 2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
• ½ cup (120 mls) heavy cream

Directions:

Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Sambucca and let the mixture cool. Put the cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Recipe 4: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream above):

• 1 cup (235 mls) whole milk
• 1 cup (235 mls) heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 6 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75 grams) sugar

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.

Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.

Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.

Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.