0 Chocolate Pavlovas

I've been a total blog slacker lately. I haven't posted anything since last month's Daring Bakers' challenge. I wish I could say that I was busy with work, travel or the World Cup. Or that I haven’t had the time to bake lately. But I don't have any excuses. Work is, well, work and that's as busy as it has always been. My next big vacation isn't until the fall. And I value sleep over watching the World Cup. Besides, the constant drone of the vuvuzelas during the broadcast have been driving me, and probably every one else, batty!

I've been baking like a mad woman, but it's been mostly repeats of stuff I've already posted on alpineberry - red velvet cake, macarons, almond lemon tea cake, yogurt cake, palmiers, fruit cobbler, black bottom cupcakes, banana bread and cheesecake. I'm still on the hunt for a great chocolate brownie recipe. Last week I tried the fudgy brownie recipe in last month's Fine Cooking magazine as well as Alice Medrich's cocoa brownies. Both were decent and the co-workers enjoyed them tremendously, but neither was what I've been looking for.

I've also been playing with my newest toy, a Cuisinart ice cream maker. So far I've made Vietnamese coffee ice cream, chocolate-peanut butter ice cream, strawberry sorbet and dark chocolate ice cream. The recipes are from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. The chocolate ice cream is made with both Dutch-processed cocoa powder as well as bittersweet (72%) chocolate. It was by far the absolutely best chocolate ice cream I have ever eaten. Thanks David!

Despite all that time spent in the kitchen, I didn't photograph any of it. I didn’t want to set up the photo lights. I didn’t want to think about what to say in a blog post. I just wanted all that food to just be food. Can you tell that I've been in a blogging rut? Sigh.

So I wasn't sure if I was going to participate in this month's Daring Bakers' challenge. I've been on the fence about continuing to participate in the DB challenges the past few months. When I first joined in February 2007 there were just 10 of us. In fact, of those original 10 ladies, Elle and I are the only ones still active. Despite the huge success of the Daring Kitchen (which includes both Daring Bakers and Cooks), I miss the intimacy of a small group.


a more traditionally shaped shell on a pool of creme anglaise mascarpone sauce

But the daring spirit lives in me for another month. This month's challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. She asked us to make a chocolate pavlova with a chocolate mascarpone mousse based on a Francois Payard recipe. Pavlova is a crisp meringue that is typically served with whipped cream and fruit.



For the shape of my cocoa meringues, I took inspiration from the photo in Francois Payard's Chocolate Epiphany. I filled a silicone mold with the meringue to make half-spheres. The spheres were a bit rough on the outside, but I found the spheres charming nevertheless. The full sphere reminds me of the Death Star. I also piped some shells into a more traditional shape.

The verdict? The cocoa meringue was crisp on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside. It was light as a cloud and melted in my mouth. Mascarpone was a nice twist to the dark chocolate mousse filling. The cream anglaise mascarpone sauce seemed a bit superfluous, but it was a nice complement to all that chocolate.

See what the other Daring Bakers thought of the challenge.

The fine print: 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.



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