Hey, it’s Daring Bakers Time!

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!

I seriously love these edible containers.  And this one made my heart go a-flutter, my arteries to close up and my left arm to ache.

Evelyne suggested a maple mousse in a bacon cup.  We didn’t HAVE to make a bacon cup.  We could have made any kind of cup we wanted.

But I made a bacon cup.  Duh.

But before we get to that, let’s make the maple mousse.

Because it’s awesome.

1/4 cup whipping cream, 1 pkt gelatin, 4 egg yolks, 1 cup maple syrup.

And you need the real stuff.  Not “maple flavored” syrup.

Bring the syrup to a boil, then temper the eggs and mix with the hot syrup…

Dissolve the gelatin in the whipping cream.  Microwave the mixture until the gelatin is completely dissolved.I didn’t realize it, but this “dissolving the gelatin” is super-important.  If you dont’ get the gelatine properly dissolved, you get these little gummy specks in the mousse.

Not that I know firsthand or anything…I mean, I’ve heard people say that.  Har har.

Okay, whisk the whipping cream mixture into the syrup mixture…Set this aside and whisk occasionally until cooled.

Now whip 1 cup of whipping cream and fold into the gelatin mixture….And throw the whole thing in the fridge to set up for at least an hour.

Let’s make the important part – the bacon cups.

There were several examples given – big elaborate bowl-shapes, some made on muffin tins…

But I wanted something small…so I went back to my old cream horn technique.

Take some clothespins, wrap with aluminum foil…

Then wrap a piece of bacon around them, sort of in a cone shape.Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 until they’re nice and browned.

I let them cool slightly in the foil then pulled them off and let them cool completely on paper towels.

Then, unfortunately for you, I got so excited to fill them, I forgot to take a picture of them empty.

Sorry, dude.

But see?

And a chocolate drizzle doesn’t suck at all.Did you hear that?  That was the sound of my cholesterol hitting 500.

Yay, Evelyne!  This was a fun one!