Daring Bakers’ (Yup, I am still a Member) June 2010 Challenge

I have said it before, but it bears repeating--I have not been in the best baking spirits lately. I have not really baked anything new and exciting for months, which undoubtedly means that I have not completed a challenge in a few months. **Hand head low, averting eyes, and hides in shame.**



Well this month all of that has changed and hopefully for good. So, let’s get the required text out of the way: 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.

Until this challenge I had never heard of a Pavlova, but the recipe seemed easy enough and I was willing to give it a try. The results--a crispy, light as air chocolate cloud covered in a decadent mousse.

I had fun piping different shapes with the meringue and decided to take a picture of my work, just in case something happened during the baking processes in the oven.



In the first picture above, I piped the center of the flower with the chocolate mascarpone mousse and drizzled some melted white chocolate ganache over the flower. Note to self: hot ganache + cold mouse = dripping melty mess!



I topped others with a simple pecan half. There is something about pecans and chocolate...



that is even better in bite-size mouth-popable pieces.

All and all it was a good challenge. My only complaint—it was so humid here that the cookies did not stay crisp. In less than 24 hours, they were slightly tacky to the touch and stuck to your teeth when you bit into them, still tasty however. For the challenge recipe please refer to: www.thedaringkitchen.com

This has been a Torts to Tarts production:
(I could not resist :o)