Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Daring Bakers Challenge: Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

daring 3

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

IMG_4564

For those of you unfamiliar with Pavlovas (like me), they are meringue based desserts that are common in Australia and New Zealand. They are normally meringue disks, filled with whipped cream and topped with fresh fruit.

The real challenge for this is, of course, the meringue. Vegan meringue has been tried by many and with most people not having the best results. Julie Hasson is one of the nice vegan folks who worked really hard to come up with a meringue recipe that really works. I can’t post this recipe because it is on the membership side of her website, Everyday Dish. I use her recipes all the time and I have to say it’s definitely worth getting the membership!

IMG_4539

Meringue recipe whipping in my stand mixer.

IMG_4543

Meringue all whipped up and ready to go. I folded in 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder into the meringue and put in a piping bag with a large star tip.

IMG_4552

Piped out meringue on parchment paper. This part was allot of fun to do and it tasted like chocolate marshmallow!

IMG_4555

I baked the meringues at 200° overnight. They kind of remind me of the mad scientist experiments I did as a kid with chocolate chips and marshmallows in the microwave! They still felt really soft to the touch in the oven, but as soon as I took them out, they instantly hardened. They ended up being very crispy, but not in the light and airy way that meringues are. Not perfect, but definitely a really good start to having meringues!

I also made crème anglaise from the book Passionate Vegetarian. The recipe is really delicious and is a great dessert sauce. I mixed a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder with a cup of the crème anglaise for a second sauce.

The last item I made was chocolate mousse. This is my all time favorite chocolate mousse recipe that you would never guess is dairy-free! I’ve used it as a filling in cakes or just as is. It is absolutely wonderful stuff! I normally sub out the amaretto for more chocolate soy milk and it works great.

IMG_4562

Here is the final product! A chocolate meringue disk with piped on chocolate mousse, on top of vanilla & chocolate crème anglaise, with sliced mango, kiwi and a raspberry. Very good stuff! It tasted wonderful and I am really happy with the end result.

Sorry for the lack of posts and this very late Daring Bakers post! I will be posting the Daring Cooks Challenge in a couple of days!

3 comments:

Renata said...

Wow!! That is absolutely gorgeous!

Dinoff said...

Love the end result!

It looks delicious!

The first time I haven't tried one of your tasty creations!

Awesome job!

Vittle me this... said...

yum!