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!
I was excited to take on the Daring Bakers challenge this month. For a very, very long time I have wanted to make an edible cookie bowl. In fact, I had it on my list of my top 100 things to bake and have looked longingly at a certain recipe card in my notebook for many years. I never really had a reason to make one up to this point so it was great to have an excuse.
The first one I made went together beautifully and then as I was transferring it from the pan to the cooling rack, perched precariously on two cookie spatulas, it totally fell apart on my counter. I had an inkling of what was coming but my poor husband, who I had just asked to help, was totally bewildered and thought I might blame him for the mishap. What can a girl do except get right to work on another one with the leftover dough.
While forming the second cookie bowl, I nibbled on the pieces from the first. I only wish it had tasted as good as all my good thoughts about it over those many years that I had looked longingly at the recipe. It was pretty blah. My only hope was that it would improve once the mousse was in the bowl.
Other Daring Baker challenges have given me the opportunity to make mousse and while I don�t make it often I wasn�t nervous about making it. I was curious as to the taste, though. I love a good maple bar (a doughnut with maple frosting) and I enjoy a bit of pure maple syrup on my pancakes and waffles, but the thought of a whole serving of maple mousse had me a bit perplexed as to how it was going to taste.
The mousse went together nicely. There were no mishaps with the preparation of this item and I was really looking forward to tasting the finished product. And oh my goodness was it rich! One spoonful was enough for me. Of course, with that first tasting I admit to eating more than one spoonful but it was only because I wanted to get all the crispy pieces of ham eaten up. After that though, I was able to leave the mousse in the fridge and just take a spoonful every now and then and feel content.
One thing that was a bit off for me was the temperature. When tasting my first serving I hadn�t left it in the fridge very long so it was set up but it wasn�t really cool. I expected then that when I had subsequent servings, after sitting in the fridge even a few days later, the mousse would be cold. However, every bite I took seemed like it was the same temperature as when I first put it in. Strange, not sure what that was all about. But it did make me think that maybe I will look for some maple ice cream flavors to try since I really enjoyed the maple flavor but was looking for something cool.
By the way, some Daring Bakers added bacon into the mix. I thought I would also cook up some bacon to sprinkle on the top, but wouldn�t you know that the day I completed the challenge I had no bacon in my fridge. I did have a few pieces of shaved ham so I decided to crisp those up and crumble them on top. It probably was not as enjoyable as bacon would have been, but it did give it some nice crunch in every bite. Enjoy!
Edible Cookie Bowl Recipe
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup blanched, slivered almonds, finely ground
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cover the outside of a loaf pan with foil. Spray with vegetable cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, almonds, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium, beat butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture; beat until a dough forms, about 2 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough out to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter with scalloped edges, cut out shapes.
Cover pan with cutouts, overlapping and pressing them slightly.
Bake cookie bowl until edges are firm, about 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and cool completely.
To remove the cookie bowl, carefully lift it off the foil-lined pan. Remove foil.
Maple Mousse
1 cup pure maple syrup (not maple-flavoured syrup)
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups whipping cream (35% fat content)
Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.
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). Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.
Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle it with the gelatin. 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 gelatin has completely dissolved.
Whisk the gelatin/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.
Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.
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. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.
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