Daring Bakers Chocolate Meringues and Have You Ever Had a Chocolate Picnic?

I’m Sasa and I’m a chocoholic (and a tupperware-a-holic for that matter but that’s another blog-post).

Years ago, when some idiot minion in the New Zealand government thought it would be amusing to use the then-current batch of students as guinea pigs in a colossal April Fool’s joke of a policy, we received our student loans for the year all at once. Right into our bank accounts. 10,000 smackers. I was 17, just.

Anyway, I thought it would be a smart idea to spend a great deal of the first substantial amount of money I ever had in my hot little mitts on a chocolate picnic for me and my closest friends (as well as a beautiful collection of tupperware).

I was, amazingly, right. There was white, milk and dark chocolate. There were chocolate cakes, biscuits (tims tams, toffee pops) and filled chocolates. Huge quantities of each. We gorged.

There was much rejoicing.

This month’s Daring Bakers kind of reminds me of that youthful hedonism and abandon. It involves not 500, not 600 but 800 mls of cream. Yes, and that’s not counting the mascarpone (let’s not count the mascarpone, ok?).

What’s the most hedonistic thing you’ve ever done?

Chocolate Meringues with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse and Crème Anglaise

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.

When I looked at the last two recipes, I knew that the amounts of chocolate mousse and mascarpone cream would be ridiculously out of proportion to how many meringues the first recipe would produce so I have scaled them down accordingly. Nevertheless, I still had enough mousse left over to make little mousse cups for four people.

For the meringues

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 95 celsius (200 fahrenheit). Line a baking sheet with a 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 caster sugar about 1 tablespoon at a time until stiff peaks form. The whites should be firm but moist.

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. This may look like it won’t 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.

Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. (I did mine in golf ball sized balls so they only took a 1 and 3/4 hours).

Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

For the chocolate mascarpone mousse

Put 60 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. Let sit at room temperature until cool.

Place the mascarpone, the remaining 115 ml 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. Be careful not to overbeat or the mascarpone will split.

Mix about 1/4 of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to loosen. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse.

For the crème anglaise (a component of the mascarpone cream below)

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 some 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 thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

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.

For the mascarpone cream

Slowly whisk the mascarpone and the Sambuca if using, into the crème anglaise.

Put the heavy cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

To assemble, pipe the mousse onto the meringues and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Dust with icing sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

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Tagged as: chocolate, creme anglaise, custard, daring bakers, mascarpone, meringues, pavlovas, recipe