Tags
almonds, baking, caramel, cayenne, chipotle, chocolate, cinnamon, Daring Bakers, fancy, gluten-free, meringue, nibs, pepper, recipes, spicy, tequila
The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.
Are you guys wearing your fancypants?? You’re going to need them for this dessert. It’s famous, so you don’t want to be under-dressed. That would be rude. What do your fancypants look like? If I could design the pair in my mind, they would be purple, sparkly, and with a ruffly butt. Totally class, right? For some reason stirrups keep wanting to bombard my vision, but I think I’m going to pass on those.
Right. So this dessert has kind of a lot of components, each requiring its own set of steps. It was way overwhelming at first, but after reading over things a few times along with all the questions others were asking/answering in the DB forum, I realized that it wouldn’t be difficult, just time-consuming. Definitely an exercise in planning, which isn’t really my forte. But I did it!
I’m guessing the $1,000,000 question right now is: What the #$%^ is a marquise?! It’s kind of like a chocolate mousse, but a little richer. After making the base for it, you freeze it which allows you to cut it, coat it in cocoa powder, and place it on the meringue. When you finally eat it, it’s so dreamy soft….mmmmm. It’s not overly sweet, especially with the kick from the spices, and you know how I love me some spicy chocolate!
And when there’s also torched meringue, boozy caramel, and spiced nuts, how can it be anything but amazing?? (Answer: it can’t.) Continue reading