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Daring Baker’s Challenge: Pavlova

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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.





I will admit, I am not typically a huge fan of meringue.  There’s just something about the texture of it that bothers me.  HOWEVER, I’ve discovered that Pavlova is an entirely different beast all together.  I absolutely loved this dish. I think the creamy of the mouse paired with the crunchy of the meringue is what did it for me. All three of my kids tore into this dish with reckless abandon and Nick let out a tribal yell after finishing it exclaiming quite loudly that this was the best dessert I had ever made for him.

Not only was it loved when eaten, but my four year old played quite an active role in helping me cook it.  He helped make the meringue and loved helping decide what shapes to make them.

Thank you, thank you Dawn for such a lovely and delicious challenge.  We enjoyed making it almost as much as we enjoyed eating it!

These pavlova had multiple pieces to them, so we’ll take it one recipe at a time.  First up, the meringue.  Here’s what you’ll need:

3 Large Egg Whites
1/2 Cup plus 1 Tbsp of Sugar
1/4 Cup of Confectioners Sugar
1/3 Cup of Cocoa Powder

Grab your egg whites, throw them into your mixing bowl and whip ’em up until soft peaks form.  Next, you’ll turn the mixer back on and 1 tablespoon at a time, you’ll add your sugar to the egg whites.  Do this until stiff peaks form.  Here’s what you should have at this point:
Now, with your sifter over the top of your bowl, sift in your cocoa and confectioners sugar.  As you can see, I just put both ingredients in at the same time and sifted them together.

Fold in the sugar and cocoa by hand.  It may take a minute to come together.  Be patient, I promise it’s worth it!  Once it’s mixed well, here’s what you’ll have:

I don’t know about you, but that’s looking delicious to me already!  The next step is the fun one.  Grab your piping bag, fill it up with the meringue and pipe out on a parchment lined baking sheet whatever shapes you desire!  This is the part where Alex, my four year old really started to have fun.  He held the piping bag for me while I put the meringue in and then told me which shapes I should pipe.  I know you wish you had a sous chef like mine!

And here are a few of the shapes per Alex’s request:

The next step is to cook ’em up in the oven at 200 degrees for between 2 and 3 hours.  We cooked ours for about 2 and a half hours.  You want them to be nice and dry when you pull them out.  These can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days and still taste delicious.  Here are the finished meringues, ready to be loaded up with mousse deliciousness.
Ok, next up is the mousse.  We did two flavors of mousse, vanilla and chocolate.  Here’s what you’ll need for the mousse:
1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream
The Grated Zest from 1 Lemon
9 ounces of 72% Chocolate, Chopped
1 2/3 cups Mascarpone
A Pinch of Nutmeg
2 Tbsp of Triple Sec or Grand Marnier

Let me note before we get started, that I split this recipe down the middle and did half chocolate, half vanilla, so I only used half the chocolate called for above.

Alright, let’s get back to it.  First up, add 1/2 cup of the heavy cream along with your lemon zest to your saucepan and warm it up on low heat.
Once it’s warm, add in the chopped chocolate and whisk it until it just melts and then remove it from the heat.  Let it cool completely.  Here’s my chopped chocolate (yes, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it):
Now we’ll move on to the other part of the mousse.  Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and the nutmeg into your mixer and whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose.
Add in your triple sec and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks.  Be sure not to over beat or your mascarpone will separate!
If you’re doing half and half, at this point you’ll split up your mixture, putting half in the refridge for later mousse, I mean use (ha ha, I couldn’t resist) and the other half you’ll use to make your chocolate mousse.  Fold about a 1/4 of the mousse mixture into your cooled chocolate.  Stir it to combine and then add in the rest of the mousse and stir it up.

Here are your finished vanilla and chocolate mousses:
Pop them both in the fridge for a couple hours to cool down and firm up a bit.

Alright, time for the final step.  The mascarpone cream.  Here’s what you’ll need to finish this pavlova off right.  You’ll first make up a creme anglaise.
1 Cup of Whole Milk
1 Cup of Heavy Cream
1 Vanilla Bean, Split or 1 tsp of Pure Vanilla Extract
6 Large Egg Yolks
6 Tbsp Sugar

In your mixer whip up the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns a pale yellow.  Here’s my pale yellow mixture:

Now, grab a sauce pan and add to it your milk, cream, and vanilla over medium heat.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then take it off the heat.  Now comes that part that always makes me nervous to screw up.  Take about a half a cup’s worth of your hot liquid and add it into your egg mixture, whisking constantly so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs.  Continuing to whisk in the saucepan now, slowly add the egg mixture back in with the rest of hot liquid.  Put the heat back on medium and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixtures starts to stick to the back of the spoon.  Be sure not to overcook or you’ll end up with pudding!  Here’s the liquid sticking to the back of my spoon:
Strain the mixture through a fine holed sieve and then put the finished product into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.  In case you’re wondering why you sieve the mixture, see exhibit a below:
Once your creme anglaise is chilled, pull it back out and add to it:
1/2 Cup Mascarpone
2 Tbsp of Kahlua
1/2 Cup of Heavy Cream

To the creme anglaise, slowly mix in the mascarpone and kahlua.  Set it aside.  Now you’ll want to mix up your heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Add in your whipped cream to the creme mixture.

And voila!  You have everything you need to make up your pavlova.  Stick the mascarpone cream into the fridge to chill.  When you’re ready to serve up your pavlova, you’ll place a meringue, then a scoop of mousse, then a drizzle of mascarpone cream, and finally some fresh chopped fruit.

If that doesn’t have your senses stimulated and your mouth watering I don’t know what will.  Wait, maybe I do.  How about a picture of the final product to get you inspired.
Grab a Copy of the Recipe HERE

Mousse out of the way, I need a pavlova!


Other Recipes You Might Enjoy:


Daring Cooks Challenge: Pate and Homemade Bread
Daring Bakers Challenge: A Croquembouche
Daring Cooks Challenge: Stacked Green Chile and Marinated Seafood Enchiladas

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Comments

  1. Julie,
    This is quite the recipe! I have never been a huge fan of pavlova, but after seeing your pictures, I want to give it another try. I loved seeing Alex too!

    Reply

  2. That looks delicious. I have never made pavlova or any meringue-y type things. This looks decadent and yet light!

    Reply

  3. That looks yummy! I love how the cream is running down in little rivers. Great job on the challenge!

    Reply

  5. Yummyyyy! This looks great! i could just eat that right now!

    I've been wanting to do a mousse post (amongst others) for a while now but i went to sweetbay the other day and i was asking for heavy whipping cream and cream of tartar only to be told that no one has ever heard of these things and that prehaps they dont sell them in the US. I was then pointed in the direction of 'cool whip'! Now after seeing your pic of HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM, i know im not a mad woman for asking for it! I felt like a moron when i asked for it and no one knew what it was!

    Reply

  8. P.S. I'd love for you to link it up to my tasty tuesdays this week if you can.
    alicia @ a beautiful mess

    Reply

  9. Wonderful job on this pavlova!! I love all your step by step pictures. It was too intense of a recipe for me to do that with the chocolate one. And I am a BIG fan of pix of chopped chocolate. Great job on this challenge!!

    Reply

  10. Great job. Wonderful, thorough documentation of the whole process. And your little one is too cute.

    Reply

  13. Well done on this months challenge, looks like youve done a great job, i love all the step by step pictures as well 😀

    Reply

  14. if i could keep myself from guzzling the creme anglaise, i'm sure i'd really enjoy all the components joined together. however, that's a big 'if'… 🙂

    Reply

  17. Alex looks so happy and proud to be your helper. I can't wait for my daughter to be old enough to help. She's 10 months old.

    Great job. Your pavlova looks awesome.

    Reply

  21. Your pictures are so gorgeous. What kind of camera do you use? Isn't it fun to bake with your kids. I loved your description of them enjoying it. What a sucess this was for your whole family, eh?

    Reply

  23. i think your recipes are just too good and simple, the way you have showed how they are made, make all the difference, i loved your mousse recipe by the way

    Reply

  25. Hey Sarah! I use a Canon Xti but I'm hoping to upgrade to a better camera body for my xmas present this year.

    This was a really fun challenge and I loved having a sous chef! Thanks everyone for the kind words!

    Reply

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