Daring Bakers Challenge: Maple Mousse Served in an Edible Container

This month the host of our challenge was Evelyn of Cheap Ethnic Eatz.  She challenged us to try a maple mousse made with the real thing, NOT Aunt Jemima, and she encouraged us to put it in an edible container.  She offered two suggestions . . . a bacon basket (huh?) or a nut crust.

Now I love maple syrup.  Love it!  The only time I'll even consider eating the fake stuff is if I'm stuck in a Waffle House.  So I was very excited to try maple mousse but I couldn't, for the life of me, get excited about the edible container.  So, I thought about doing these cute chocolate cups but that seemed too easy to qualify for a Daring Bakers thing.  So, in the end, I settled for homemade puff pastry shaped into a vol-au-vent.  I made these for my very first Daring Bakers challenge and I'd always wanted to make another batch.  Plus, now I have some puff pastry in my freezer.  Napoleons?  Tarte tatin?  Palmiers?  Hmmmmmm.

Anyway, you can see how mine came out . . . I filled them heapingly with the mousse and sprinkled some bacon on top.  Yum.  I loved the maple mousse and the puff pastry was the perfect little cup for it. 

Here's the recipe for the maple mousse.  I'll let you figure out how you want to serve it!

Maple Mousse

Ingredients:
1 cup pure maple syrup
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon unflavoured gelatin
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Directions:
1.  Bring maple syrup to a boil.  Remove from heat.
2.  In a bowl, whisk egg yolks together.  Pour a bit of the hot maple syrup into the yolks, whisking constantly.  This will temper the egg so it doesn't scramble.
3.  Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup and whisk until well-combined.
4.  Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a small bowl.  Sprinkle gelatin on top and let stand for five minutes.  Place bowl in microwave for 40 seconds, stopping it every 10 seconds to check and whisk the mixture.  This will ensure all the gelatin dissolves.
5.  Whisk the gelatin mixture into the maple syrup mixture.
6.  Set aside for an hour whisking occasionally or until mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten egg white.
7.  Whip remaining whipping cream until soft peaks form. Stir 1/4 of the whipping cream into the maple mixture to lighten it.  Then fold the remaining cream into the maple mixture. 
8.  Cover and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Lemony Dandelion Oat Cookies

Got dandelions?

I do.

My boys love to pick them and hand them to me by the fistful.

But what's a girl supposed to do with all those dandelions?  Make cookies, of course.

Years back I'd heard a segment on The Splendid Table detailing the nutritious benefits of common weeds.  The speaker then offered a recipe for dandelion flower cookies.  Great!  Right?  Until I started searching for them online and discovered that most people thought the recipe resulted in a rather bland cookie.

Yup.  You've got it!  I made my own recipe.  So, here's something to make out of all those dandelions that are popping up in your yard.  Eat a little sunshine!

Lemony Dandelion Oat Cookies


1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 heaping tablespoon lemon zest
2/3 cup dandelion flowers, washed and dried
Juice from one lemon
1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment or a silpat.
2.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3.  In the large bowl of an electric mixer, prepare your dandelion flowers.  Do this by pinching the green stem end of the flower.  This releases the yellow petals.  Gently pull the yellow petals out and away and put them in the bowl.  Repeat with all the flowers.  Discard the green parts.  You should be left with a bunch of yellow and white fluff.
4.  To the dandelion petals, add the zest and sugar.  Mix with the paddle attachment for a minute on low speed.  Add the butter.  Cream mixture until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes.  Add the lemon juice. Beat to combine.  Then add the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.  Add the oats and, again, beat on low speed until just incorporated.  Remove bowl from mixer and give it a final stir with a spatula to make sure all the ingredients are mixed together.

5.  Place a tablespoon of cookie dough on baking sheets about 2 inches apart (these cookies really spread in the oven.)  If you want large cookies (like I did) use 2 tablespoons of dough and space them even farther apart.  I only got six cookies per sheet.  Flatten cookies slightly with your hand.  Bake until light golden brown, about 10 minutes for small cookies, 14 minutes for large cookies.
6.  Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Martha Monday: Old-Fashioned Apple Pie

Pru from Perfecting Pru selected Monday's project in honor of the new cookbook featuring pies and tarts released by Martha Stewart.  She chose this classic apple pie.  The crust was a decadent buttery affair.  But it was easy because the food processor did all the work.  The filling was a typical filling - apples, sugar, spices, lemon juice - but strangely it called for lemon zest along with a whopping TWELVE Granny Smith apples.  I knew there was no way 12 apples would fit in my pie pan so I pared the number down to 9.

And . . .

It was a fine pie, beautiful, buttery, but oddly sour and one-dimensional, I thought.  I usually use a few kinds of apples in my pie and this only called for Granny Smiths.  It was strange to add so much lemon zest and juice to an already sour apple.  And, in the end, I missed my crumb crust.  While the double pastry was lovely, I love the crunch and contrast of a crumb crust on my apple pie.

The best part . . . was this little guy, who helped me put my pie together.  Isn't he sweet?

Daring Bakers Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

Late.  Late.  Late.  Yup.  I'm late again posting another month's Daring Bakers' Challenge.  Better late than never, though, I suppose.


March's challenge was a fabulous one.  Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast asked us to try their recipe for a unique coffee cake.  It is a scrumptious, soft, sweet dough slathered with fluffy meringue, filled with nuts or chocolate or whatever and rolled up into a gorgeous wreath.  Once baked and cooled, it is irresistable.


I chose to make mine for breakfast while my parents visited.  Since chocolate is a bit too much for me in the morning I chose to fill mine with caramelized apples, toasted pecans, and brown sugar.  Once it came out of the oven, we all kept orbiting the kitchen to smell it and admire it and, ultimately, to devour it.  It was really good.  Not too sweet.  Perfect for breakfast or tea.

Check out the Daring Kitchen to find the detailed recipe and to look at pictures of other Daring Baker creations.