The Daring Bakers Challenge - May 2011 - Marquise on Meringue

Is it just me or do these months seem to fly by faster and faster? Things here are busy... so busy I almost forgot to post about my DB challenge until my friend reminded me yesterday!! Its so weird that I almost forgot because I am super duper excited about how this challenge turned out. It was so perfect and looked really pretty plated too.

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 dessert comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

What a challenge! Some of the components were familiar, but the marquise was not. For those of you wondering what chocolate marquise is, it is pretty much the best thing ever. For those of you who would like more of a description than the best thing ever, it is cube of spicy, creamy chocolate that you serve up on a beautiful pillow of sweet meringue. Then drizzle with salted caramel sauce and crisp candied pecans (with a hint of spice). Its absolutely lovely! It is a bit of work - there are many components, but all can be made up separately so you don't feel like you're going crazy trying to do 50 things in your kitchen at once!!!

You can find the recipes here. I would recommend using the 1/2 or 1/4 batches because this makes a huge portion of Marquise that I would not recommend consuming in one sitting. ;)

Please note that I didn't enjoy the tequila caramel sauce at all. I used a recipe for salted caramel sauce from a blog I have mentioned a time or two - Tracey's Culinary Adventures. She used the caramel sauce to fill brownies with and also to make salted caramel cheesecake bars. Both recipes looked super delicious! If you have a chance, do drop by her blog to check out the never-ending stream of deliciousness that she tends to post!

I would definitely recommend taking on this dessert one weekend when you need something exciting to do! Thats what I do when I need some excitement - I try out a recipe that will dirty every dish in my kitchen and that will really challenge my culinary skills. My hubby's verdict on the dessert was that it was delicious and I was "allowed" to make it again (despite the dirty dishes he had to clean up the next day on his day off!!!)!

So thank you Emma & Jenny for a fantastic challenge this month! It was great to have some fresh and new ideas come to the DB challenges, particularly a dessert that so many members had never heard of, let alone attempted. I learned a lot this month and had a great time doing it!

Stay tuned for some great posts this weekend!

Happy Baking my Friends!