Daring Bakers, May: Marquise on Meringue

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.


My flavors were peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon--chocolate marquise with peanut butter caramel sauce and honey-roasted cinnamon peanuts to garnish.



I plated the dessert with a square meringue . . .


And a round one.


I froze my marquise in an olive oil dish--the kind you pour olive oil and vinegar into and serve with sliced, crusty bread for dipping. I was too lazy to unmold it correctly, just setting it out on the counter to thaw. I hadn't set the mix into saran wrap or anything to help the unmolding--I'd hoped it would just slip out. It sort of just plopped out.


It was tasty, though. =)

Overall, I thought this was tasty, but it was a lot of work for what turned out to be a simple dessert. A lot of cooks joke about how Martha Stewart recipes often have more steps than necessary--I sorta felt like this recipe fit that bill at times. I noted that my marquise tasted like a fudgsicle, but making it was a bit involved for something that was too pudding poppish. Because I couldn't help thinking that about thawed pudding pops as I ate this. The meringue was more complicated than other meringue recipes, but gave the same result. My favorite, favorite aspect of the dessert was the peanut butter caramel sauce, and that wasn't part of the original recipe, which used tequila caramel. The peanut butter caramel sauce was an adapted Bobby Flay recipe.

Notes:
*I used a quarter recipe, since I had no purpose for 22 or however servings this made. The marquis keeps in the freezer . . . and tastes like a pudding pop/fudgsicle. Anyway, it's tasty.

*With the quarter recipe, watch your cook times--the caramel/sugar mixtures cook up in just a few minutes.

*Since I was plating only two servings, I baked the rest of the meringue into hard shells, which keep in an airtight container for several days, as do the honey-roasted cinnamon peanuts. The peanut butter fudge keeps in the fridge.

Visit my fellow DBers to see their variations and beautiful platings of this luscious dessert.