Friday, May 27, 2011

Daring Bakers - Chocolate Marquise on Meringue



Does that look like a super-galactic space monster to you? 
The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

This was certainly an interesting challenge - squares of mousse rolled in cocoa, sitting atop a throne of meringue, and accented by brandy caramel and spiced nuts - crazy huh? I enjoyed each of the elements except for the meringue, which was created boiled stylee, and was supposed to be smudged raw on the plate then torched.  As I didn't have a kitchen torch,  I baked mine for half an hour, which coloured them and made them firm enough to transport to work.  However, the meringue was kind of rubbery and strange - not like a usual meringue at all, and wasn't my favourite part of this.

The mousse was - well, mousse.  I actually enjoyed it while it was still partially frozen - it is kind of like a chocolate Paddlepop without the stick.

However, I adored the caramel and the spiced nuts.  These components weren't compulsory and I was going to skip them, but chnaged my mind at the last minute - and I am glad that I did.  At work, people were pinching the spiced nuts off the plates, so I put out the leftover ones for people to go for it.  The nuts are coated in a mixture of egg whites, cayenne and cinnamon before being baked until the coating has set.  The leftover spicy but sweet caramel (it contains cayenne) was perfect on icecream.  As mentioned above, instead of using tequila in my caramel, as suggested by the original recipe, I used btandy, primarily because I had btrandy in the house and I couldn't buy a nip bottle of tequila.

Thanks to our hosts, Emma and Jenny, for introducing me to something totally new.  They will have the recipe on their respective sites. To check out the infinite variations by the Daring Bakers, visit the Daring Bakers website

15 comments:

Gloria Baker said...

Cake law I think look really delicious, I love meringues! x gloria

cocoa and coconut said...

Wow, what a elaborate sounding recipe. Looks like you did a great job; no space monster look alikes here!

Elaine said...

It does not look like a space monster to me! It sounds like this had a lot of components and was a little tricky to make.

Anonymous said...

This dessert sounds really tasty! I may have to try it sans meringue based on your post. (I'm not a meringue fan.) Great post!

Finla said...

I have to agree with gloria they look yumm.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

It looks great-not space monstery at all! :) I really wanted to do this challenge but ran out of time again! Hopefully next month!

Johanna GGG said...

blowtorched meringue doesn't enthuse me - paddlepop and caramel nuts sounds great

Anonymous said...

I bet the caramel and nuts would be great on top of ice cream!

Ivy said...

I love meringe based desserts and this one sounds delicious.

Makey-Cakey said...

It was a hard challenge - well done! I agree that the nuts are fantastic :o) Yum

Anonymous said...

Looks great- too bad you didn't like the merigues. I bet the spiced nuts would go great with a cocktail!
Best, sandie

chef_d said...

I baked my meringue too! And you are right, the marquise is like paddlepop. Great job on this challenge!

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

The caramel was my favorite part...I wish I had made more than a quarter batch! I was licking the bowl :) I love your idea of using the extra on ice cream...oh, yeah... But I had to laugh at your galactic space reference...even so, it still looks yummy!

Nutmeg Nanny said...

Great job on the challenge! Those spiced nuts sound amazing!

Koci said...

I keep hearing wonderful things about the spiced nuts. Wish I had made some! Sounds like this challenge was definitely a yummy success! :D