Daring Bakers’ April 2011 Challenge: Maple Mousse Served in an Edible Container

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 recently purchased steel tubes for shaping homemade cannoli, and saw this as the perfect opportunity to try them out. We weren't crazy about the maple mousse filling (kind of reminded us of Van Wilder's special eclairs), but the cannoli themselves were great. We'll be making them again soon, and will post with a classic ricotta cream filling.

See recipes after the jump!


Maple Mousse


Ingredients
1 cup pure maple syrup (not maple-flavoured syrup)
4 large egg yolks
1 package unflavoured gelatine
1 1/2 cups whipping cream (35% fat content)

Directions
1. Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.

2. 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).

3. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.

4. 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.

5. Whisk the gelatine/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.

6. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.

7. 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.

8. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.

Cannoli
Recipe from Cake Boss by Buddy Valastro
Makes 10 Cannoli


Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring dough and work surface
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (Buddy recommends leaf lard if you have it)
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 extra-large eggs
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions


1. Put the flour, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of shortening, vinegar, 1 egg, cinnamon, and salt into a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment. Mix on low-medium speed until well combined, approximately 10 minutes.

2. Remove dough from bowl and wrap in plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes - 3 hours.

3. Lightly coat the dough with flour and roll to 1/8-inch thick with a rolling pin or pasta machine.

4. Cut 5 inch long ovals from dough. Loosely wrap oval around dowel (we bought metal dowels from our favorite kitchen store) and brush one end of the oval with beaten egg. Pull the egg-brushed end over the opposite end, and press them together, sealing the shell around the dowel.

5. Heat vegetable oil in a pan to 350 degrees (Buddy uses lard, but the vegetable oil worked just fine). Carefully lower dowel into pan and fry until golden brown, turning with a slotted spoon. Use the spoon to carefully remove the dowel from the oil and transfer to a paper towel lined plate to cool.

6. When the shell is cooled completely, pull the dowel out. Fill with maple mousse (I'll do another post soon with the classic ricotta filling) and dust with powdered sugar.