June 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Chocolate Pavlovas with Mascarpone Mousse

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 was quite confident about this challenge, as I'm pretty good with pavs, being a particularly special dish to Kiwi and Aussie bakers alike. I didn't think it would take me so long to make though! I started the challenge on Friday night by making the mascarpone cheese myself instead of buying it. That part was so easy I was quite pleased with myself. But yesterday I made the pavlovas and then the crème anglaise but decided to wait until today to assemble it all together so I wasn't the one who ended up eating it all!
A minor hiccup of adding too much cream to the chocolate was easily fixed and I was so pleased with the result.

And the result? A DELICIOUS quite decadent, VERY fattening and rich dessert. And for some reason I have heaps of mascarpone cream still left over which might make a lovely icecream topping....

The recipe is here on the Daring Kitchen site.

And if you want to make your own mascarpone cheese its really easy. Here's how:

Ingredients:
500ml cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Heat water in pan till boiling, pour cream into heatproof bowl and place in pan. Heat cream and stir constantly until you see bubbles trying to make their way to the top. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Stir until cream curdles and thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Leave to cool. When cool pour the mixture into a sieve lined with 4 layers of cheesecloth. Let it set overnight in the fridge so it can firm up then wrap in clingfilm. It will keep for 3 days or so in the fridge.