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.
How suitable that the the first Daring Bakers' Challenge that I am privy to is a pavlova. You see, I have always considered my chocolate angel pie to be my signature dessert and the similarities are...well, see for yourself.
For a link to the recipes that were provided click here.
One of the problems that I've had with my chocolate angel pie is that it relies heavily on eggs that aren't cooked....an issue these days to be sure. I get around it using dried egg whites and pasteurized eggs, but it's kind of a pain. When I saw the pavlova recipe, I couldn't help but want to adapt it into anangel pavlova pie--no raw eggs to deal with! Check it out:
For a link to the recipes that were provided click here.
One of the problems that I've had with my chocolate angel pie is that it relies heavily on eggs that aren't cooked....an issue these days to be sure. I get around it using dried egg whites and pasteurized eggs, but it's kind of a pain. When I saw the pavlova recipe, I couldn't help but want to adapt it into an
I used my own recipe for the meringue crust since it was so similar. The only change I made was to mix in 1/3 cup cocoa powder. Yum...why didn't I think of a chocolate crust before? It did turn out a bit more crumbly with the addition of the cocoa.
I always spray a glass pie plate with cooking spray before spooning in the meringue. If you skip this step, you won't be able to get the crust out of the pan in one piece....trust me.
Doesn't the meringue turn out pretty? I bake it for an hour in a 250 degree oven, turn the oven off, and leave it in (don't open the door) overnight.
Yay! I found some decent chocolate at Trader Joe's. I used 6 bars (a little over 9 oz). Instead of melting the chocolate in a pan, I microwaved it for about a minute and twenty seconds.
The recipe provided called for 1 3/4 cups mascarpone. Yikes! That stuff is a little pricey. Plus, it sounded like an awful lot, especially if you were supposed to use it in the sauce on top, too. I ended up getting just one 8 oz. container and combining it with 4 oz. of softened cream cheese.
I did add the Grand Marnier....love the stuff! Next time, I'll add some fresh orange zest, too. The chocolate in this is so intense, the orange flavor was a little lost. I whipped up 8 oz of heavy cream with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, folded this into the mascarpone mixture, and then folded it all into the chocolate.
After I filled the meringue with the chocolate mascarpone, I put some plastic wrap on it and chilled it for a few hours. In the mean time, I whipped up some Creme Anglaise (just a fancy name for custard sauce).
I basically used the recipe provided for this, only adjusting the amounts. Since I used 4 egg whites in the meringue, I used the 4 yolks for the custard and adjusted the milk to 1 3/4 cups. That's a vanilla bean in the picture....it really added a wonderful flavor. Since I only bought the one container of mascarpone, I omitted it from the topping altogether; I simply whipped up another 8 oz of heavy cream with a little powdered sugar and folded it into the Creme Anglaise.
OK...so the whole family raved about this "new" angel pie. The husband (who doesn't like meringue) liked the chocolate version, and the daughter (and her friends) couldn't get enough of the chocolate mascarpone....fudgy, they said. And me---I adored the custard sauce on top of the deep chocolate filling. I sprinkled a little orange zest on the top, mainly for aesthetics, but it ended up giving it even a little more flavor. Definitely a keeper, this recipe. I'm liking this Daring Bakers' thing.....
