Daring Bakers June - Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Marscapone Mousse

Ahhh, pavlova ... the quintessential Aussie summer dessert. While I am more of a fruit and whipped cream pavlova girl, all the chocolate in this version made my husband a very happy man!

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 have never made chocolate meringues before so this was a great challenge for me. I made 1/3 of the recipe and got 4 lovely meringues. I baked them a little differently than stated in the recipe because I wanted them to have soft and fluffy middles. 45 minutes at 130 degrees C did the trick.

The marscapone mousse was more flowing than mousse-like but was absolutely delicious anyway. The marscapone cream/creme anglaise seemed like overkill to me so I topped my meringues with sliced strawberries and grated dark chocolate. This is a VERY sweet treat but the strawberries did cut through the richness of the mousse and the plain sugariness of the meringues.

The hardest part was taking a photo without someone's little fingers getting in the way! (Normally not a problem but Oscar is dairy intolerant).

Thanks to Dawn for a choctastic challenge this month! You can download a PDF of this recipe here.