Officially, this is a Dacquoise; a ‘traditional gateau of south west France’, from the Dax region don’t you know! So just like potato ‘Dauphinoise’ comes from the Dauphin region, a ‘Dacquoise’ comes from the Dax region, which is all well and good and rather exotic but does nothing to help its cause and is not going to sell it at the end of the day.
This recipe first appealed to me because of its accompanying picture in the recipe book, but you and I don’t have that luxury, not on a written menu nor when your pals rock up wanting to know what’s for dinner; hence ‘meringue cake’. I believe this is referred to as a ‘double whammy’, non?
Three thin layers of hazelnut meringue, baked into discs and sandwiched together with a softly set cream filling enriched with melted chocolate, stacked together and topped with toasted hazelnuts. It should serve eight or 10 people…
The meringues can be made a day or two in advance and filled several hours before serving. Any leftovers (?!?) will keep in the fridge for a couple of days but will gradually soften over time.
Ingredients
For the meringue
65g whole hazelnuts
4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
For the chocolate cream
115g dark chocolate
100g sour cream
150ml double cream
1 x tablespoon caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 190 ⁰C (to toast the hazelnuts).
Roast the hazelnuts in the oven on a baking sheet for 5 minutes, then tip them onto a clean dry tea towel. Gather the corners together to form a purse and rub the skins off. Chop the hazelnuts finely and divide into two unequal piles of ¾ and ¼.
Turn the oven down to 110⁰C for the meringues.
Line 3 baking sheets with baking paper and use a cake tin as a template to mark a circle on each, roughly 20cm in diameter.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl, adding the sugar gradually at the stiff peak stage. Fold in the larger pile of chopped hazelnuts then divide the meringue between the three discs. Level off the tops of the discs, and sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts over one of them, which will become the top layer. Bake the meringue in the oven for 2 hours, then turn the oven off and leave the meringues inside to go cold, for at least another 2 hours.
To make the cream filling melt the chocolate in a bowl sat over a pan of barely simmering water. Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream. Whisk the double cream with the caster sugar until it starts to form soft peaks (no further), then fold it into the chocolate mix. Once the meringues are cold, spread half the chocolate cream over the top of one of the discs, add a second meringue layer and spread with the rest of the chocolate cream. Add the final meringue disc and refrigerate for a couple of hours to set.
Dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar prior to serving and portion with a serrated knife, as per a cake.