The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!
So the rules for this challenge were as follows: 1) We had to make one of the two Maple Mousse recipes provided (I have listed the one that I used below), and 2) we must make an edible container for the mousse to be presented in.
As soon as I read the rules, I knew exactly what I was going to do.
Of the many cookbooks that I have, I actually have a few that are strict pastry and plated desserts. One that has always drawn my attention was a bowl made out of chocolate. It is actually made by taking a small balloon, blowing it up, and dipping it in melted chocolate. Once the chocolate has set you can remove the balloon. The easiest way I have found to do this is to just pop it 🙂 I actually had a bit of trouble with dipping the balloon in the chocolate because the bowl I melted the chocolate in wasn’t big enough. In the end I just spooned the chocolate over the balloon and them smoothed it out in a swirl pattern with the back of the spoon.
The maple mousse was pretty straight forward to make. At first, I was only going to make half a recipe, then I discovered that I only had 1/4 cup maple syrup. Which is just enough for 1/4 of a recipe. I decided that 1/4 of a recipe was perfect, even though I knew my containers wouldn’t very full. The recipe came together without a hitch, and when the mousse was set I piped it into the chocolate cups. The flavor of the mousse was very nice. My first thought when I saw the recipe is that I didn’t want the maple to be too strong of a flavor, and it actually was perfect. You tasted the maple, but it wasn’t overpowering at all. Definitely a mousse recipe that can be modified for any type of flavor that you like 🙂
Maple Mousse:
Source: Adapted from Jaime Oliver is not my boyfriend
Ingredients:
• 1 cup (240 ml/ 8 fluid oz.) pure maple syrup (not maple-flavoured syrup)
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 package (7g/1 tbsp.) unflavoured gelatine
• 1 1/2 cups (360 ml. g/12 fluid oz) whipping cream (35% fat content)
Directions:
1. Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and pour a little bit of the maple syrup in while whisking (this is to temper your egg yolks so they don’t curdle).
3. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.
4. Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle it with the gelatine. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in a microwave for 45 seconds (microwave for 10 seconds at a time and check it in between) or place the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, stir to ensure the gelatine has completely dissolved.
5. Whisk the gelatine/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.
6. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.
7. Whip the remaining cream. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the remaining cream and refrigerate for at least an hour.
8. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.
When in Doubt...Leave it at 350 