Unsuspecting folks along the eastern seaboard had their lives seriously disrupted this week when Hurricane Sandy sped up the coast wreaking havoc at each stop. Thankfully Maryland was spared the damage that other states like New York and New Jersey experienced, but many including myself were left without power. Like many of the families in my neighborhood, we all managed as best as we could until the power came back on 30 hours later, but we were determined to not let Sandy put a damper on our Halloween holiday, and did our best to celebrate the day as we had been planning for the past few weeks.
One of the treats that I had planned to share was an idea for my chocolate mousse cups with piped meringue in the shapes of large spiders. You can do what I did and place the chocolate mousse into little ramekins or you can buy or make little chocolate cups and put the mousse in that. Use a piping bag you can make the meringue and pipe out the little spiders on top of each cup, and then pipe out the legs onto parchment paper. Once they are cool, simply attach them to complete the look. They are pictured above and I think they turned out pretty cute!
Chocolate Mousse & Meringue Spiders
1 recipe chocolate mousse
1 recipe Italian meringue
Piping bag made from parchment
Melted non tempering chocolate
The other items I made were little puff pastry mummy sandwiches that I filled with chocolate butter cream. You can fill this with just about anything you like, jam works well too. I made my own puff pastry, but you can use a store bought product. I find that the homemade item tastes so much better. It does take a little effort, but it is easy to make once you get the hang of it.
Puff Pastry Mummy Sandwiches
1 sheet puff pastry
Royal icing (for eyes) (egg white, lemon juice, sifted powdered sugar mixed to the right consistency)
Melted chocolate (for eyes)
Medium sized round cutter
Sugar
1 recipe Italian meringue made into butter cream (or jam of your choice)
First decided what filling you would like to use. If you are going to make the butter cream, make that ahead of time and once it is ready, set it aside to use when the cookies have cooled. Whether you make your own puff pastry or use the store bought kind, unroll one of the sheets onto your counter and use a round cookie cutter to cut out the small cookie rounds. Make sure to cut out an even amount since you will be sandwiching them together. Cut out the rounds from half of this sheet, and then use a knife or a pizza cutter to cut out thin strands which will become the mummy wrapping that you will lay over one of the rounds. Use the cutter again to get a clean edge by gently pressing down over the strips of dough. Make sure to leave a space for the eyes, which you will pipe in later after they have been baked and cooled.
Put the finished rounds onto a sheet pan lined with parchment, then place another piece of parchment over this and then another sheet pan on top of the parchment. You are doing this so that the puff pastry faces do not rise, as puff pastry will. Bake these for about 20-30 minutes until golden brown but not burned. Remove and allow them to cool completely. Melt the chocolate and make the royal icing and place these into little paper cones that you have made. First pipe out the eyes and then add the chocolate on top of this while the royal icing is still wet. Allow them to dry together. You can pipe out a mouth as I did, but you don’t have to. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the butter cream onto the cookie bottoms, then place the mummy face on top of the cream to create the sandwich. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.
DON’T throw the extra pieces of puff pastry away! The French call them rognures (pronounced ro-nyer), and you can toss them with grated parmesan cheese or a cinnamon sugar and bake them…they make a really tasty snack!
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