I was honored to be invited to host the Daring Bakers challenge this month.  I chose a dessert we made in a French Chocolate class which was very well received by all in attendance and I thought when looking back at the archives of previous Daring Baker Challenges that pavlovas hadn’t been done and there was no chocolate since I joined the group.

The challenge is primarily based on a recipe from Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard and is called Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse.

While the recipe appears to be complicated because of the four components, all of the steps are very simple and easily achieved.

Thanks to everyone who participated this month.  I am glad you enjoyed the challenge!

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.  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:

1. 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.
2. 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.)  
3. 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.)
4. 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!)
5. 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 (don’t forget we made this a few months ago – get the printable .pdf HERE)
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

1. 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. 
2. 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.) 
3. 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:

1. 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:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.
2. Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat. 
3. 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.
4. 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.

Assembly:
Pipe the mousse onto the pavlovas and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

The Daring Bakers Challenge this month was piece montée (mounted piece) or croquembouche (crunch in the mouth).  It is a French pastry piled as high as you dare comprised of cream puffs which are cemented or anchored together with caramel, toffee or chocolate.  A rounded base is formed with the cream puffs.  The tops and sides of the cream puffs are dipped in your “glue” of choice and the layers begin.  Croquembouche translates to cracked mouth or bite in the mouth because after the caramel hardens, it cracks when pulled apart and subsequently eaten.  We recently made one in a pastry class and the students were delighted with their efforts which makes this dessert not only fun to eat but fun to make!

Blog-checking lines: The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Pate a choux dough is made primarily of flour and eggs and is the dough for the profiterole or cream puff.  Puffed in the oven and filled with a pastry cream, the individual cream puffs form the croquembouche.  Pate a choux translates to little cabbages which is how the puffs look as they come out of the oven.  The pastry cream can be substituted with chocolate, dulce de leche or whipped cream if desired. 

It looks intimidating and awe inspiring but it really is very simple to put together so go ahead and give it a try on a rainy day.  Okay, maybe not a rainy day.  The cream puffs do get a little tempermental when it rains.  They apparently adore the sun as it makes their shiny tops look all the more inviting.     

Here are the recipes we were required to use:

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Additional Information: Here are some videos you may want to take a look at before you get started on your piece montée.

1) Martha Stewart Assembles a Croquembouche:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/marthas-famous-croquembouche

2) Assembling croquembouche using the interior of a cylinder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-UgMxe0Y4
3) Asembling Free-standing Croquembouche with Chocolate Glaze:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrIanD5pi9E&feature=related

4) Assembling a Croquembouche with Toothpicks and Cone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIGaidsM-NI&feature=related

See this google images search of Croquembouche for inspiration:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=croquembouche&btnG=Sea…

Here’s a link to a dairy-free pate a choux and crème patisserie recipe:
http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/dessertsbeverages/r/creampuffs.htm

This month’s Daring Baker Challenge was Orange Tian.   I chose to follow the recipe as is although other bakers made theirs with many other fruits.  You can visit The Daring Kitchen for a slideshow of some of the creations.

It is a light summery dessert made with a butter dough, stabilized whipped cream and from scratch orange marmalade.  The challenge, while a bit time consuming, wasn’t difficult.  While I followed all of the recipes for the components of the dessert, I shaped my tians free form for two reasons.  The whole upside down layering process seemed fusssy and, because of my remarkable ability to procrastinate, I was setting up the photo shoot with an hour to get dressed and ready for an afternoon wedding.  The free form was quick and easy and allowed me to actually blow dry my hair!   

Pate Sablee:  A rich buttery dough with a big crumb (sablee means sandy) made much like pie crust with the addition of sugar.  Quickly made in a food processor.

Orange Marmalade:  While I canned jams with my grandmother as a kid, this was my first go at orange marmalade.  It was pretty straightforward and delicious when finished.

Stabilized Whipped Cream:  Heavy cream whipped with sugar is pretty standard at Foodies.  This recipe called for stabilized whipped cream with the addition of softened gelatin to allow it to hold the weight of the oranges. 

Caramel:  This was the only glitch for me.  I wasn’t sure of the process of melting the sugar and adding in the orange juice only to remove it from the heat before reaching the caramel stage and pouring it over the orange segments when we were later requested to dry the oranges from the orange liquid.   I don’t think they infused any additional flavor into the oranges so I would probably skip this step on my next go.   

All in all, this is a pleasant summer dessert which could be made with other fruits in season.  It could also be made more “doable” by utilizing store bought jam or marmalade to coordinate with your fruit.  Segmenting fruit is not one of my favorite things so I would probably do this again with berries which I could just lay on top.  Kiwi would be delightful as would slices of mango or papaya.  And since the free form was easy to assemble with an offset spatula to round out my edges, I don’t know that I would go to the trouble of layering in rings and freezing before unmolding.

The recipe is rather long and might be offputting to some.  However, many of the components can be made well in advance.  The pate sablee and orange marmalade could be made several days in advance.  Segmenting of the orange and the whipped cream could be done a day ahead.  The caramel would be the only component which must be done “day of”.  If you use jarred preserves, the whole process is much more streamlined. 

Mandatory Blog-checking lines: The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

ORANGE TIAN

For the Pate Sablee:

2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
Granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Unsalted butter 7 tablespoons, ice cold and cubed 
Salt 1/4 teaspoon
All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons
baking powder 1 teaspoon

Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.

Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.

Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

For the Marmalade:

Freshly pressed orange juice 7 tablespoons 
1 large orange used to make orange slices
cold water to cook the orange slices
pectin 5 grams
3/4 cup granulated sugar, more or less to taste 

Finely slice the orange skin and all.  Place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes.   Repeat this process three times as it removes the bitterness from the orange peel.

Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool.  Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).

In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, sugar, orange juice and pectin.  Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).

Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

For the Orange Segments:

For this step you will need 8 oranges.

Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.

For the Caramel:

granulated sugar 1 cup 
orange juice 1.5 cups

Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.

Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.   (When you add the orange juice, the sugar will seize immediately.  Keep it over the heat and the sugar will melt again.)

Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the orange tians.

For the Whipped Cream:

heavy whipping cream 1 cup
3 tablespoons of hot water
1 tsp unflavored gelatine
1 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar
orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon

In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream.  Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken.  Add the confectioner’s sugar.  Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms medium peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.

Assembling the Dessert:

Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.

Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.

Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.

Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.

Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart.

Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.

Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.

Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.

Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

I joined The Daring Kitchen to participate in the monthly challenges.  There are two “venues”:  one for cooks and one for bakers.  This month is my first challenge.  The cook’s challenge is double top secret until the reveal date so you will have to wait for that one!

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

The challenge was to make all of the components for tiramisu from scratch.  The ladyfingers are a breeze and while they are certainly easily made, I think if you have access to a great Italian market like we have here, they are just as good purchased.  If all you can find are the soggy spongy variety in the grocery store, definitely try the recipe below.

The mascarpone.  Oh, where do I begin.  What a disaster.  I feel comforted by the fact that many other bakers had challenges with the mascarpone.  I couldn’t find pasteurized heavy cream and had to go with ultra pasteurized.  The recipe was supposed to take 20 minutes to get to the desired temperature and consistency.  After an hour, I figured it had to be done and put it in the cheesecloth and refrigerated as directed.  Is anyone in need of an irregularly shaped light yellow hockey puck?!?!?   I went to my favorite Italian market and bought a tub of mascarpone. 

One of the reasons the hosts chose this recipe was because the tiramisu called for pastry cream which they had never seen before.  There is probably a reason for that.  After looking at about 20 other recipes for tiramisu, none of them call for pastry cream because it doesn’t work.    And while I am on the subject, pastry cream or creme patissiere is thickened with cornstarch.  This recipe’s only thickener was egg yolks and, at least as I have been taught, is a creme anglaise and not a creme patissiere.  Creme patissiere is meant to be thick and stable.  Creme anglaise is not.  It is a more pourable sauce consistency.     

In my humble opinion, tiramisu is about the ladyfingers soaked in coffee and rum and the creamy rich mascarpone filling.  The recipe called for a mere 1/3 cup of mascarpone.   I have done some research and have found ABSOLUTELY NO recipe that calls for a scant 2.666 ounces of mascarpone for an 8×8 pan.  This thick creamy triple cheese is what tiramisu is all about.  This amounts equals about…. well not much per serving!

When the mascarpone was combined with the other three elements it was a gloppy mess I could drink with a straw and I knew by pouring it over my beautiful ladyfingers that I was just going to be throwing those ladyfingers away.  After reading many posts about the recipe in the double top secret forum, I discovered that many had to freeze their tiramisu in order to get a piece out to slice and photograph.  People, this isn’t what tiramisu is about.  It isn’t meant to be frozen.  It isn’t meant to be gloppy.  It isn’t meant to have more whipped cream than mascarpone.

There are tons and tons of tiramisu recipes out there.  If you read about the origins of tiramisu, there are as many suggestions of its roots as there are recipes.  No liquor.  Liquor.   Zabaglione.  No zabaglione.   Whipped cream.  No whipped cream.  But, in the end, the most important part of this dish is its ability to stand up on its own.  It shouldn’t have to be pushed, prodded and cajoled into an edible mass.  It just shouldn’t be this hard. 

I am an accomplished cook and can make whipped cream and know the difference between soft, medium and hard peaks.  I have made zabaglione and sabayon many many times.  I regularly make pastry cream and creme anglaise for classes.  The failure wasn’t in my inability.  The failure lies with this recipe.

Since part of the challenge is to show your creativity, I made three samples.  I did freeze them in my commercial freezer overnight so I could take these photographs.  This is basically frozen tiramisu.   The first is the traditional with coffee.  Instead of the traditional cocoa powder, I added a ganache painted ladyfinger.  

For the second, I added some fig preserves to the filling.

For the third, I added some homemade orange curd and sprinkled the top with orange zest.

While I am always happy to try new recipes and ideas and to stretch my imagination in the kitchen, I am sticking to my tried and true tiramisu recipe.  Coincidentally, we are in the middle of a baking series at Foodies and next week’s glass focuses on genoise.   In addition to a roulade and petit fours, we are making ladyfingers and tiramisu.  Skip this and wait until next week’s posting.

I think this is my first really negative post since I began this blogging adventure.  Sorry, Daring Kitchen.  But trying to add five or six steps to a recipe that simply doesn’t need it seems to be a waste of time and effort.   Can’t wait for next month’s challenge!