0 Maple Mousse

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Evelyne who asked us to make a maple mousse. Evelyne is from Quebec where spring typically begins with a pilgrimage to a sugar shack ("Cabane a Sucre"). The party continues with a feast of eggs, ham, peas, pork rinds, beans, pancakes, bacon and pies - all served with maple syrup.

The maple mousse recipe she gave us makes a mousse that is silky smooth with a pure maple flavor. There's really no substitute for the flavor of real maple. I had a couple different bottles of maple syrup in my pantry, but since this challenge was about the sugar shack tradition I used the syrup from Canada.



She also asked us to make an "edible container" to fill with our maple mousse. Her suggestion was to make a bacon cup, but she gave us the freedom to make any vessel for the mousse as long as it was edible. And even though the Daring Kitchen was having a contest for the most creative container, I was feeling very uncreative. I ultimately made tart shells from desiccated coconut and maple syrup.




I really liked the flavor of the maple mousse with the coconut tart shell. The shell had a toasted nutty flavor that complemented the maple mousse. The coconut shell was very much a like a crispier version of a coconut macaroon. The only problem I encountered was trying to get the shells out of my muffin tin without breaking.



Since both the maple syrup mousse and coconut shells were on the very sweet side, I decided to add some chocolate to half of my tarts. I had some bittersweet chocolate ganache leftover from another baking project so I added a layer of ganache to the coconut shells before layering on the maple mousse. It's a strange idea to add chocolate to cut the overall sweetness of the tart, but it really did tame it since the chocolate was on the dark side (85% cacao). I liked the addition of chocolate, but felt that it overpowered the maple mousse. I think Evelyne was right to suggest bacon as an accompaniment. The savory bacon would have went nicely with and cut the sweetness of the mousse without hiding the maple flavor.



Thanks to Evelyne for a fun challenge. That's another notch on my Daring Bakers' belt. This is the 43rd challenge I've participated in since joining the group in February 2007! Check out the other DB creations at the Daring Kitchen and be sure to vote for your favorite edible container.

Blog-checking lines: 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!
Continue reading...