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April 27, 2011

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 425F 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 425F degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color (about 10 minutes).

Lower the temperature to 350F 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!

20 comments:

  1. Looks great! I never worked with maple syrup but after looking at this mousse I think I should give it a try!

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  2. I love how excited you got by the challenge, and you certainly rose to it! Those little puffs look amazing, and filled with some serious deliciousness!

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  3. I love your little puffs! That was a great idea. I bet it helped to cut some of the sweetness of the mousse as well. Great job!

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  4. This looks delicious! Being a New Englander anything with maple gets my appetite worked up.

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  5. Great work on this challenge, I love your edible container! I have to make choux pastries, for some reason I think they are super difficult? Better conquer them soon, these look like the perfect treat!

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  6. Putting the maple mousse in choux is brilliant! It must have been so good!

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  7. Absolutely gorgeous! You did a fantastic job with these!

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  8. Perfect! Love the idea of maple cream puffs... They look so yummy!

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  9. Those choux are incredible. They're perfect. The maple mousse is as light and fluffy as you'd want in an edible container like yours. Perfection, my friend. Absolute perfection.

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  10. this is a nice delicious dessert looks wonderful

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  11. Love it! So cute how you put a lid on your puffs. I bet they were perfect containers to balance the sweetness of the mousse. Great job!

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  12. These look like little bites of absolute goodness. I bet this was a fun challenge. Nicely done!

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  13. They look so good, I bet I could eat a couple dozen, before noticing how much damage I'd done!

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  14. Great idea - sounds absolutely delicioso!

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  15. So pretty....and filled with that wonderful maple flavored mousse...heaven.

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  16. I love your description! Mousse in an edible container... how can you go wrong?? I've never made these before, but a girlfriend makes something similar, but not with mousse. Maybe I will have to surprise her!! Nicely done, Sara!

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  17. I would have eaten all of these. You better come on Sunday, I'm so looking forward to seeing you. Maple mousse, sounds like it would be good for breakfast. Why do I always read desserts before breakfast, bad idea.
    -Gina-

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  18. This looks super delicious! I love maple and I love any pastry using pate a choux. What a perfect marriage.

    Good luck with the contest. This has my vote.

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  19. These look outstanding! I love a puff f any sort but the combo here sounds delish! These just make me smile looking at them :)

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