Maple Mousse Puffs: the Daring Bakers’ April Challenge

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 very excited to read that April’s DB challenge was going to involve a delicious maple mousse. I love maple syrup and everything derived from it. I knew I was going to love this mousse.

I was even more excited when I read the rest of the challenge: to serve the maple mousse in an edible container! Why was I so excited? First of all because I could just imagine what all the amazing Daring Bakers out there could have come out with! And second, because lately I have been thinking a lot about how much I love these DB challenge and, nevertheless, after tried a new baked goodie I seem to forget about it after it’s posted. I really would like to put more effort in going back to the past DB challenge and revisit and re-try the amazing desserts that I’ve got to try. I have had a mix of failures and successes in the past challenges but it doesn’t matter. What matter are the techniques that I have learnt along the way.

When I started my blog a little over a year ago I was absolutely scared at the idea of making certain desserts. Or I had the (wrong) impression about the level of difficulty of certain recipes. The latter was the case for the pate a choux. I always loved everything made with pate a choux but I have always been intimidated by it. I would have never attempted it myself hadn’t it been for the Daring Bakers. But when I tried I got amazing puffs at the first shot and I remember thinking “this is so unbelievably easy!” (forget about making the croquembouche! That was a disaster because I burnt my fingers with the caramel and I could not go on staking the puffs!).

So for this challenge I decided to try something new, the maple mousse, with something old, the puffs and I made maple mousse puffs.

Maple Mousse

Ingredients

240 ml (8 fl oz or 1 cup) pure maple syrup (not maple-flavoured syrup)

4 large egg yolks

1 package (7g/1 tbsp) unflavoured gelatine

260 ml (12 fl oz or 1 1/2 cups) whipping cream (35% fat content)

Directions

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 gelatine. 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 gelatine has completely dissolved.

Whisk the gelatine/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.

Pate a Choux

Ingredients

(Yield: About 28)

175 ml (¾ cup) water

85 g (6 tbsp) unsalted butter

2 g (¼ tsp) salt

15 g (1 tbsp) sugar


125 g (4.5 oz or 1 cup) all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat the oven to 425◦F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the water, the butter, the salt and the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping

Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Bake the choux at 425◦F degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color (about 10 minutes).

Lower the temperature to 350◦F degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry (about 15-20 minutes more). Remove to a rack and cool.

Assemblage

Once both the mousse and the pate a choux are cold, cut off the top of each puff and spread a tablespoon of mousse. You should prepare only those that you will eat soon to preserve the freshness of both the pate a choux and the mousse. The puffs can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Have a sweet day!