Mmm, Bacon: The Gateway Drug

Oh, bacon, how you tempt me. As a most-of-the-time veggie, bacon is what tempts me most. The intense salty-sweet. The crackle. The chewiness. And the smell - that alone drives me crazy.

Truthfully though, I agreed with TJ - who asked for bacon cups filled with bacon. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to adulterate it with maple mousse and chocolate. So in the end, I made some nut cups and tried the mousse that way - the bacon will have to wait for another day (doesn't mean that Erica didn't make it though!)

Also, did anyone else hear maple and hope that we were going to make these? Another time, perhaps...

Erica and I actually talked beforehand about how we were getting to be such experts at meringue. Never do we fear the possibility of the egg whites not taking on that initially foamy texture, and then magically transforming into smooth, white peaks (the trick? A VERY clean bowl. And if you break a yoke, start over - it will never form up if there are yolky bits in there...). But our confidence was once again thwarted by the temperamental oven (and perhaps our own poor communication skills). But, burnt meringue is actually better than you might expect - it takes on that flamed-marshmallow texture and taste, and was actually quite delicious.

Erica made some beautiful bacon cups. Not too hard to get it to stick together, but perhaps not the most creative attempt either. Deciding to tackle the DB challenge on a work night wasn't leaving us all that inspired.

And I made some tasty nut cups. No comment on how, um, inappropriate that sounds.

Sorry for the lack of mousse pictures - it came together rather quickly, and we neglected to take photos. Quite tasty though!

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!