Almond-Cherry Dacquoise
A dacquoise is a meringue that is made with a nut meal like hazelnut or almond that is then piped, baked and layered to form a cake. In most cases, the meringue layers are the book-ends to a middle layer of chiffon, genoise or sponge cake and flavored buttercream, which is exactly what I did here.
For a rich loving gesture that will melt you and your lover,
all you need is a heart shaped pan and a hot desire to make a sweet for your sweetheart to pull this decadent Valentine’s Day treat off.
(If you don’t have time to bake a gluten free treat for your lover, you can also give them gift that keeps on giving by taking one of his or her favorite recipes and contributing it to the Blackbird Bakery Community Cookbook)
Almond Dacquois
1 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons cornstarch
8 egg whites (at room temperature)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 200°F. Line a jelly roll sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Outline two hearts on the paper so your meringue layers will be the exact same size. I took and 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper, folded it in half length-wise, and cut out a heart.
Fit a pastry bag with a 1 ½ inch plain pastry tip and set aside.
Grind the almond meal, cornstarch, and ½ cup of the castor sugar in a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds until very uniform and fine.
Whip the egg whites until frothy. Add the remaining ½ cup of sugar and the cream of tartar and whip until the egg whites are stiff, about 3-4 minutes.
Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites just until combined.
Transfer the egg white mixture to your prepared pastry bag. Using uniform pressure, pipe the meringue into the outlined hearts. I began by piping along the traced line of the heart and then worked inwards with concentric hearts.
Bake for 4 hours until the meringues are completely dried out.
While the meringue layers are baking, make the dark cherry butter cream.
1 lb. unsalted butter (4 sticks) diced and chilled
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup cup water
9 egg yolks, at room temperature
2 tablespoons kirch
3 tablespoons dark cherry preserves, strained
few drops red food coloring
Dice the butter and put in a glass bowl and return to the refrigerator so the butter is chilled.
In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Cook until it reads 239°F or soft ball stage on your candy thermometer.
While the syrup is coming to temperature, in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks on high until they are frothy, pale and thick. With the mixer still on high, pour the syrup over the edge of the bowl, so it slides down the inside of the bowl rather than into the whisk, which will cause the sugar to spray all over the bowl.
Whip the egg mixture until the bottom of the bowl feels warm, not hot to the touch.
Strain ¼ cup black cherry preserves; you should now have 3 tablespoons when the solids are separated.
Begin adding the butter in tablespoon increments to the butter mixture. Wait until you can no longer see any clumps of butter before each addition. Continue until all of your butter has been added. Add the preserves and the kirch, mixing just until combined.
Set aside.
For the Chiffon:
60 g. or ½ cup glutinous rice flour
60 g. or ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons sorghum flour
60 g. or ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon potato starch
60 g. or 3 tablespoons potato flour
50 g. or ¼ cup 2 tablespoons tapioca starch
50 g. or ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup almond meal
2 teaspoons guar gum
2 ½ teaspoons baking
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup luke warm water
½ cup pure olive oil
7 egg, separated
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line an 8 inch heart shaped pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine all the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Whisk together the water, oil, egg yolks, sour cream and extracts until very smooth. In a slow steady stream, with the mixer on medium low speed, add the wet ingredients into the dry ones in a slow steady stream. When all the wet ingredients are added, switch the mixer to high and whip for 1 minute and the batter is thick and smooth.
Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff. Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the batter until you can no longer see clumps of the whites.
Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350°F for 35-45 min. Fill only 1/2 full. Reserve the extra batter for another cake.
The cake is done when the top of the cake cracks slightly and the cake has pulled from the sides of the pan.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 1 hour.
When the meringues are done, trim any edges as needed. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1 inch plain tip and fill with the buttercream. Pipe the buttercream onto a layer of the meringue. Place the chiffon cake on top. Pipe a layer of the buttercream onto the chiffon and top with the meringue.
Ice with this chocolate icing.
Pipe chantilly cream rounds onto the top of the cake and top with either candied cherries(pictured here) or with cherries with the stems still on.
For the chantilly cream:
1 cup cream
2 tablespoons castor sugar
splash of vanilla extract
Whip on medium with the sugar until sot folds form, about 2-3 minutes. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain tip. Pipe accordingly.
Photos by Knoxy
