April Daring Bakers' Challenge: Maple Mousse in Edible Containers

I learned something wonderfully terrible today. It may mean the end of my waistline, unless I up my gym schedule to 7 days a week. When the spring weather starts, around Toronto the radio and TV stations start playing advertisements for Canada's Wonderland, our local theme park. And every year, I hear the jingle and see the brightly coloured rollercoasters flash across the TV screen, the craving starts. I want funnel cake. It used to be that I would have to pay the 30-something dollars admission, plus parking and gas money. I'd then have to walk across the huge parking lot and into the park, all the way to Top Gun (Let's be serious, Paramount may have sold the park, but no one is every going to know what you're talking about if you try to tell them that the funnel cake stand is just beside "Flight Deck"). However, today I learned something: with very little effort, and a little bit of time, I can make funnel cake at home.

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!

As I tried to figure out what my edible container would be, I kept coming back to pancakes. To me, pancakes are the only thing to combine with maple syrup. I considered crepes and waffles, and all sorts of things. But one day a couple weeks ago, that jingle came on the radio, the craving struck, and I knew what I wanted to make.

I also knew that I wanted to take the opportunity to taste-test some genuine New York maple syrup. I had the opportunity to go down to Ithaca, New York for a weekend to meet the boy halfway between Toronto and Philly. We had a blast, and I took the chance to introduce him to the wonders of a Farmer's Market (He has the Reading Terminal Market at his disposal, and he buys his food at ShopRite, I'm jealous). I bought some yummy granola, as well as some wonderful medium amber syrup, which I was able to buy directly from the farmer. I'm pretty big on the whole "direct from the source" supply that a farmer's market provides.

I was also able to use some local (Canadian) maple beer in the funnel cake batter. Overall, it was delicious. (But really, I could have just eaten the funnel cakes straigt from the hot oil and dealt with the 100 pounds of weight gain later).

At the suggestion of the boyfriend, there was maple candied bacon too. I wanted to fit in the original bacon component from the originally-supplied recipe. It was not so awesome. Regardless, the whole thing turned out pretty fab.

March Daring Baker's Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

I was pulling pictures off the camera tonight, and realized that I forgot to post March's recipe, so this will be short and sweet!

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.


All I can say is that this was easy and fun to make, and was heaven to eat!

February 2011 - Panna Cotta

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Well, I'm a Girl Guide leader up here in Canada. I run a Pathfinder group which is girls who are 12-14. For those who are wondering, yes I am insane for choosing to spend time with a dozen girls that age. This past week we were doing a Murder Mystery Dinner Party. The Murder Mystery was Pasta, Pistols, and Passions - an Italian mystery! Perfect! I have an Italian dessert that I need to make and now I had a place to take it.

I whipped up the cookies first a few nights prior. Now, I would have to argue that this is not a recipe for Florentines. Florentines have almonds in them. In my opinion, the recipe we were given was for Oatmeal Lace cookies. Which I make often. And are delicious. They just aren't Florentines.

Now, rule number one - don't use rolled oats. Oops. It's what I had, so I went with it! But they turn out so much better with Quick Oats! I wasn't a huge fan of the cookie recipe - they really didn't turn out. I'm not sure if it was just my oven or the fact that I used rolled oats (well, I know it was partially that) or something else, but they really didn't turn out well.

The Panna Cotta was quick and easy and turned out beautifully! I haven't made Panna Cotta before - just lots of Bavarians. So I was a little nervous about how little gelatin there was in the recipe, but they turned out just right.

The morale of the story is that 12-14 year old girls love any cookie, no matter how good or bad. But gelatin-ized milk? Not a winner. I think maybe 2 of them were brave enough to actually taste it. The rest just looked at it and played with it in the cups and went, "Ewwww." I guess next time I'll save the Panna Cotta for a Murder Mystery with adults.

Now for a few pictures!

It's with cookie doughs like this that I REALLY appreciate having a cookie scoop.



Spreading the chocolate on the cookies. I've got some baked cookies in the background and a few already made in the container.



Completed cookies. I found they baked way too much on the edges and not enough in the middle. Again, not totally sure if it was just my oven or was something else.



Finished Panna Cotta. Sorry, forgot to take pictures so I snapped this one at our Murder Mystery Party. I just did them up in plastic cups. I was going to do a lemon gelee on top but ran out of time. Next time I guess! Maybe the girls would have been more willing to try them with that. Oh well!