Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

I should have known that it all wouldn't go smoothly with my first Daring Bakers' Challenge.  From remaking my recipe to a big ol' camera snafu, the first one left me a lot to learn from.  Without further ado, here's my shorter than spectacular post!


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.

A little about my level of expertise on this subject.  Before this challenge I had NEVER:
made a pavlova
made a mousse from scratch
made my own creme anglaise

I had really only dabbled in cookies, cakes, pies, and a few breads, so I was excited and definitely taking out of my culinary comfort zone for this, my first challenge.

The first item I made was my creme anglaise...TWICE.  My first go round turned into a big pot of curdled vanilla goop.  Not good.  After realizing that I needed to lower my temperature and use a different burner altogether for the second step of the creme anglaise, it turned out smooth, custardy, and very, VERY tasty.  I seriously ate a ton of it with a spoon.
The next step while that was cooling was to get my chocolate pavlovas going since the recipe said they'd bake for 2-3 hours!
This I actually didn't have any trouble with.  Whip the dickens outta the egg whites and fold in the cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar.  I placed in a piping bag, but I just cut the tip.  For my first go, I was going to success instead of fancy pants.

Here's the one recovered photo:

A few rounds, and two hearts.  Cute.  Except the centers were so marshmallowy, that removing them from the sil-pat ruined their shape.  My finished product ended up looking more, erm, rustic. :-)  Delicious, but rustic.
I made some with just vanilla, too.

I think they look like peeps.  These are amazing on their own.  The Mascarpone Mousse was another element that was made twice due to my temperature giddiness.  Adding my chopped chocolate to the heavy cream was an expensive step since the first chocolate was added when the heavy cream was WAY too hot, and I ruined it.  After another trip to Meijer in Richmond, the second go went much better.

I plated four of the chocolate pavlovas with some chilled mousse, and I went heavy on the creme anglaise since it was my favorite part.  My guinea pigs (John's mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law) licked the plates clean.  Since one of our favorite shows is Top Chef.  They made me present it as if they were "Judges Table."  I peed a little, but I did get 5 stars from all but one (the portion wasn't big enough for one!)  :-)
I will make these again, especially since my beloved Canon ate my plated dessert pictures, and I do want to try this with some peanut butter or caramel. Stay tuned!