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.

As is typical of the Memorial Day weekend we were invited to a BBQ with friends who were also celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.  Congratulations Chris and Tuni.  We wish you 25 more!

I was thinking some sort of salad and a dessert as my contribution to the day.  Luckily, the hostess was thinking cold salad as well so I forged ahead.  I had just purchased a flat of cherry tomatoes for Foodies and had a few pints left so into the bowl they went.  I had been experimenting with some barley salad ideas but didn’t like the size of the barley with the tomatoes so opted for cannellini beans instead.

I adore cannellini beans.  Yes.  They are humble and inauspicious.  And yes.  They are canned.  And no.  Not the horror of it.  Canned beans are perfectly fine to toss into a salad which will be livened up with other ingredients.  And for ease of use, they certainly can’t be beat.  Cannellini beans.  Join the tomatoes please.  A smattering of finely chopped red onion, some fresh dill, a squeeze of two lemons, olive oil, salt and pepper and you have a cold salad suitable for a day with friends ticked off the list. 

Since the salad was simplicity personified, I decided to actually use an appliance for the dessert.   Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars won the vote.  These bars are sticky, creamy, crunchy and delicious.  The dulce de leche glaze on the top never really sets (it isn’t intended to) so I decided to not take a photograph until we arrived at the party.  You can tell you are a proud food blogger when you arrive with your gift, your food contributions and your camera bag and tripod.  I carried more stuff in than when I was schlepping an infant around!  You aren’t put off by any fingers in a photograph or two as you aim for the perfect shot amongst the other guests.  You are a food blogger and you need a photo dammit! 

Whew.  Got that done.  Now go ahead and enjoy these cheesecake bars.

DULCE DE LECHE CHEESECAKE BARS from Bon Appetit Magazine

2 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (I used “regular”, chocolate and a few ladyfingers because I didn’t have enough of one kind!)

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

10 tbsp butter, melted

FILLING

24 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup dulce de leche

2 tsp vanilla extract

GLAZE

2/3 cup dulce de leche

3 tbsp whipping cream

fleur de sel

Preheat oven to 350.  Coat a 13×9x2 pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.  Add melted butter and stir until combined.  Transfer mixture to pan and press evenly onto bottom of pan.  Bake until crust is light golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Cool completely on rack.

Blend creamcheese and sugar in processor until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.  Add eggs one at at ime.  Add dulce de leche and vanilla and process until blended, about 10 seconds.  Spread batter evenly over cooled crust.  Bake until center is just set and edges are puffed and slightly cracked, about 35 minutes.  Transfer to rack and cool completely.

Heat dulce de leche and 3 tbsp cream in mirowave safe bowl until melted.  Stir to blend, adding more cream if too thick to pour.  Pour glaze over cooled cheesecake and spread evenly  Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.  Glaze will not be firm.  Cut cheesecake into 24 bars.  Sprinkle bars with a bit of fleur de sel. I forgot to do this for the photograph  : (

One of the numerous gifts we received in our swag bag from Camp Blogaway was the newest Sur La Table cookbook titled Eating Local.  It is a gorgeous cookbook!  The recipes are widely categorized: vegetables, fruits and proteins and then broken down alphabetically.  Have some turnips?  Viola.  Flip to the turnip section.  A bushel of apples.  Turn to those pages and get cooking!   

Like many avid cooks, I have more cookbooks than I have space.  As a result, I have instituted some loose buying criteria when making a purchase.  One of those criteria is that the pages must tell a story.  I can look up a recipe in any number of tried and true cookbooks but I want to read the cookbook from start to finish like I would an engaging novel.  Eating Local doesn’t disappoint.  Local farms and farmers are highlighted throughout the book.  Their stories are rich with tradition and make you want to begin sowing your own seeds.

I have “stickied” many a recipe to try but since strawberries are still crazy cheap here and since most of them come from nearby Plant City growers, Warm Cornmeal Shortcake with Farm Stand Berries fit the bill.

L O V E D this cake.  It isn’t sweet so beware.  It is grainy and toothsome (I know other food bloggers think this word is a cliche but I like it!) due to the cornmeal.  I am a huge sucker for cornbread of any kind so maybe it is why I L O V E D this cake.   If you have a sweet tooth, add some sugar to the unadorned whipped cream to add some sweetness.  (UPDATE:  I finished off the loaf with a slathering of butter just like a piece of toast and L O V E D it as well!)

It is made as a loaf and not as traditional individual shortcakes which I also loved because it makes it easy to package for giveway or storage at home.

Give this one a try.  It’s doable and delicious. 

WARM CORNMEAL SHORTCAKE WITH FARM STAND BERRIES  from Eating Local

3/4 cups butter, softened, plus more for preparing the pan

1 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour, plus more for preparing the pan

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup fine semolina

1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 cup buttermilk

3 pints mixed berries

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp brandy (I omitted)

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly grease a 9×5 load pan with butter.  Coat the bottom and sides with flour and shake out the excess.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a medium bowl.  Whisk in the cornmeal, semolina and salt until well blended. 

Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth.  Add the sugar gradually beating constantly until the mixture is pale and light and scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the almond extract.

On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients and beat just until blended.  Add the buttermilk and beat just until blended and then add the remaining dry ingredients and beat just until blended.  Transfer to the prepared pan.

Bake until the cake is firm to the touch and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, 45-50 minutes.  Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack.  Invert again so the top is up and finish cooling on the rack.

In a bowl, combine the berries, sugar and brandy.  Stir gently and allow to macerate at room temperature for 1 hour to dissolve the sugar and draw out the juices.

In a bowl, whisk together the cream and vanilla extract until soft peaks form.  Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cut the ends off the cake and then cut into 8 equal slices.  (I cut four for dinner and kept the rest whole).  Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking shet and toast in the oven until hot and slightly crusty, about 5 minutes.  Transfer the slices to dessert plates, spoon the berries and their juices over the cake and top each with a dollop of whipped cream.

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