French Tarte Faves (FTF) No. 3: dacquoise

Here I am, back with another favorite - dacquoise in all it’s glory. I’ll warn you - this one’s kind of a mouthful with various components, assembly steps etc. But the end result is deelish! And it’s a great make-ahead project.

Dacquoise is a nut meringue made in a similar fashion to the ever popular French macaron. While very versatile for creating all manner of assembled desserts, it’s also delicious baked into petite button-like cookies that can be sandwiched or simply left alone. In fact, the term dacquoise can refer to the meringue base itself OR the assembled/layered dessert.

Here are a few posts on past creations: pistachio berry dacquoise; hazelnut dacquoise tarte; chocolate hazelnut marjolaine; vanilla/chocolate dacquoise.

This time I went with a passion/raspberry/pistachio flavor profile, feeling the dessert would be a good palate refresher after an Asian meal that Steve prepared recently for a group of friends. The idea actually goes way back to my Gracie’s days when I came up with a dacquoise/passion cream/raspberry number for the dessert menu. I won’t even begin to tell you how fussy that assembly was, but, boy oh boy, it was delicious!

The nut meringue dacquoise component is frequently made with almond flour but you can substitute in hazelnut or pistachio flour (or a mix of your favorite ground nuts). This time around I used half blanched almond flour and half ground pistachios.

Plan aheads are: bake the dacquoise a few days ahead/hold in the freezer until ready for assembly; make passion fruit curd and raspberry coulis a day or two before/hold in the fridge; make a basic crumble and hold in the freezer (or use some of your freezer stash); on assembly day whip heavy cream to fold into the passion curd. NOTE: once assembled you can freeze the whole shebang (except for last minute garnishes) too!

Here are the ingredients for the dacquoise base: almond flour, ground pistachios and confectioner’s sugar sifted into the bowl left/front. Then simply whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy, then gradually add the sugar. Once all the sugar is added, increase the mixer speed and whip to stiff peaks.

Dacquoise mise

Nice Stiff peaks

Blend the nut flour/confectioner sugar mix into the whipped whites in three additions then pipe your desired shapes.

I planned to assemble this in my mom’s longer, narrower Mirro loaf pan so I use the pan as a guide, placing it on Silpat and dusting over it with confectioner’s sugar to give myself an outline for piping my dacquoise shapes. I know I’ve shown you this trick before - it’s pretty slick.

I ended up with two rectangles plus a number of cookies for garnish.

Piped and unbaked

Once the dacquoise is baked at 350ºF for about 20 minutes, let it cool then gently release from the Silpat with a small offset spatula. You can freeze the pieces now if you’re not ready for assembly yet.

Next up: passion curd. Through Amazon I ordered Funkin brand passion fruit purée (reportedly popular with bartenders for making cocktails). It stores at cool room temperature - as long as it’s unopened, shelf life is great. Once opened, refrigerate it and use within 10 days. I only needed a portion of the total amount so I poured the extra into ice cube trays and froze them for future use. I do that with freshly squeezed lemon juice too.

Passion curd mise en place

Whisk 2 large eggs and 4 large yolks in a medium bowl and set aside. In a medium saucepan heat 150 ml / 1/2 cup+2 tablespoons passion purée with 45 ml / 3 tablespoons lemon juice and 150 g / 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I’m using a golden organic cane sugar here). Temper half of the passion mixture into the eggs then return all to the saucepan and cook stirring constantly over low heat until thickened and a couple of bubbles appear (165º-180º).

Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in 140 g / 10 tablespoons cubed, room temperature unsalted butter. Using an immersion blender makes for a nice creamy end result. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap, let cool briefly at room temperature then refrigerate. This keeps in the fridge for up to a week and can be frozen. Here’s the recipe again

The curd recipe makes about 2.5 cups. I needed 360 g / 1.5 cups for this project so I froze the rest.

I often have different berry and other fruit purées in my freezer as well as whole raspberries and blueberries from summer crops. If you happen to have raspberry purée on hand, by all means use it. Otherwise thaw a couple pints of raspberries (or use fresh), smush them and strain out the seeds and add ~10% sugar to the purée to create a coulis. I used 120 g of purée set with 1/2 sheet of gelatin for the middle layer of my assembly. I saved the remaining coulis for garnishing and, if you have any of that left, freeze it for later. You’ll be ready for next time.

Let’s assemble!! Lightly oil or butter the insides of a loaf pan then line it with plastic wrap wide enough to have some hanging over the rim. Press one dacquoise rectangle gently into the bottom of the pan. You may have to trim edges a bit.

Whip 200 g heavy cream, blend it into the 1.5 cups of curd and set the blend by whisking in 1.5 sheets of bloomed, strained and squeezed out gelatin, creating a bavorois.

Use about half of that to cover the bottom dacquoise layer. Let the remainder rest in the fridge.

Pop the whole pan in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set before covering with the coulis.

Pour the coulis over passion cream and once again place the whole thing in the freezer to set.

Next I topped the berry layer with some pistachio olive oil shortbread crumbs that I had in my freezer. I had made the cookies a while ago and found them tasty but very crumbly so . . . . into the freezer they went for such an occasion as this!

Now carefully cover the crumbs with the remaining passion cream and smooth the top. Place in the freezer to set.

Finally place the second dacquoise rectangle on the top. Fold the plastic wrap edges up over the top and freeze the entire pan. I fully assembled this some days before the dinner event to make the day-of super easy. Plan ahead - my favorite mantra!

On the day you plan to serve, transfer the pan from the freezer to the fridge about 4 hours ahead. A couple of hours later, have a platter or even a simple cutting board at the ready. Gently lift the whole thing from the pan by the plastic wrap edges while it’s still semi-frozen without being rock hard. I find a warm, wet cloth wiped along the outsides of the pan helps it release more easily. Place it on the platter or cutting board, pulling the plastic away from the sides.

Hold it in the fridge where it will continue to thaw but remain cold. It should hold it’s shape.

When ready to serve, slice with a sharp knife (8 slices worked well here), plate and top with a dollop of whipped cream, some raspberry coulis, a few fresh raspberries and a petite dacquoise cookie. Yum.

All plated up

The new year is almost upon us. Take care of yourselves.

Lemon Cake

OK, so I’m on a bit of a cake kick lately. Being a lover of laminated pastry projects, breads, rolls, pizza dough, financiers/teacakes, shortbread cookies, tarts, and ice cream for our home larder (and the occasional order request) throughout the year, I’ve become more and more intrigued by the vast array of cake recipes out there. New cake related books seem to be popping up more and more.

Truth be told, baking full sized straight forward cakes like this one is less work than multiple small cakes, particularly when garnishing is involved, plus they’re great to take to cookouts or family gatherings or share with neighbors. Please NOTE: I’m not talking multi-layer, highly decorated cakes here which I know take a LOT of time and creativity by those who choose to follow that path. Kudos to those artists!

Again inspired by FOOD52’s “Genius Desserts”, this lemon cake is from Maida Heatter and her daughter Toni Evins and is offered up in the cakes section of this wonderful book as one of the “Lazy Cakes”. These are the ones that involve making the batter, spreading it into a prepped pan and baking - no layers, no garnishing or frostings, just cake, brushed with lemon glaze right out of the oven.

Mise en place

The recipe calls for a 9 inch tube pan so I opted for my mom’s angel food cake pan that has been around a looooonng time. I became its keeper when Mom moved to assisted living right before the pandemic.

This cake recipe has been around for many years. Just google “Maida Heatter’s East 62nd Street Lemon Cake” and you’ll find it from many sources. My goal here is to simply share my experience with this one - I’ll outline the ingredients/steps below but you can easily find this recipe online.

One trick that Maida Heatter used in her cakes was in the pan prep - rather than butter/flour, she replaces the flour with fine dry bread crumbs. In my case I went with crushed up plain panko. Using crumbs avoids any flour residue that might be left after baking and also helps the cake release more easily from the pan.

Floured and panko’d

The process is straight forward. Plan a bit ahead - butter (2 sticks) soft, eggs (4) at room temperature and milk (one cup) is OK cool/cold or room temp.

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Prep the pan. You’ll need 3 cups / 350 g SIFTED all purpose flour (weighing vs measuring, sifting or not - now those are separate topics for discussion!) and blend it with 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle, beat 227 g / 8 ounces / 2 sticks soft, unsalted butter for 2 minutes on medium high until creamy. Add 400 g / 2 cups sugar and beat about 3 minutes until incorporated. Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each. It may look curdled. Don’t worry.

Now with the mixer on low, blend in dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with 240 ml / 1 cup whole or low-fat milk in two additions. Beat only to incorporate - don’t overdo it.

Scrape the batter into the prepped pan and smooth the top.

Ready for the oven

I place the pan on a parchment lined sheet pan just in case some batter tries to sneak out during baking.

Place into the heated oven and bake about 65 - 70 minutes. A toothpick in the center should come out pretty clean with perhaps a few crumbs attached.

During the bake, make the lemon glaze by blending 135 g / 2/3 cup sugar with 80 g / 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Voila! Beautifully golden

Let cool about 5 minutes then place a wire grid cooling rack on top (a bit interesting with the angel food pan!) and flip the cake over onto the rack. Lift off the pan and place the rack/cake on a half sheet pan.

Ready to glaze

Brush the glaze all over the hot cake - it will soak in nicely. Let cool completely.

NIce shine!

It’s best to let the cake sit a few hours to allow the glaze to continue soaking in. The cake stores well in an airtight container at room temperature for several days. Or slice up any leftovers, wrap and freeze for several weeks.

In my case, I planned to take this to a family gathering so I whipped up some Chantilly cream and made a nice raspberry coulis to drizzle on top. Delicious!

Try this one - I think you’ll like it! Until next time. Ciao.

Peach melba crêpe cake

Happy September everyone! Autumn is my favorite season and the bounty of summer is still with us - peaches, blueberries, corn, tomatoes and more. Gotta love it.

On the heels of a savory crêpe making demo at a nearby independent living facility, my mind started thinking about a crêpe cake using late summer fruits - peaches and raspberries to be exact.

I was spurred along by both the memory of a chocolate crêpe cake I made back during our Providence days as well as dessert planning for a family meal at cousin Jen’s. Peach melba crêpe cake it is!

Many have written about the story of peach melba - classically vanilla ice cream, lightly poached peaches and raspberry sauce - a match made in many heavens if you ask me. It was created in the late 1800s by Auguste Escoffier in honor of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba. And the rest is history as they say.

As I planned my creation, along with the obvious crêpes, I went with peach caramel mascarpone cream and raspberry coulis for the assembly. Here’s the full recipe for the dessert - I’ll take you through the steps now. You can prepare the components ahead and assemble it all either the day before or the day of serving.

I did my crêpe cooking a couple of days ahead and held them wrapped in the fridge. I prefer these French pancakes nicely browned unlike some who claim they should be light in color. Nuh-uh - not me.

A friend had gifted me one of those cool wooden crêpe tools that help spread the batter out thinly with rounded (sorta) edges - it takes a bit of practice. It took a couple of tries to get the wrist motion just right, and it worked nicely on the non-stick pan I used. Actually I ended up trimming the thin pancakes to 8-inch rounds for stacking so I didn’t really care if my edges were goofy.

The peach purée can be made a couple of days ahead as well. Here I peeled, stoned and sliced 3 medium-ish Red Havens (the BEST Michigan peaches!), mixed with a couple of tablespoons sugar, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

I blended it all up with my immersion blender then brought it to a boil over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 10-15 minutes to reduce by about half.

Reducing

Well on the way to concentrated flavor

The initial weight of the un-prepped peaches was about 500 g and in the end, after peeling, pitting, slicing, cooking and reducing, the purée yield was about 200 g.

In a similar vein, to create my raspberry coulis I puréed about 400 g raspberries, pressed the mix through a sieve to separate the seeds, leaving me with about 200 g of lovely-ness. Once I’ve puréed and strained fruit, I typically add about 10% by weight of sugar (in this case about 20 g), a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar then either cool and refrigerate for later or reduce it down a bit for flavor concentration.

My 8-inch open tart ring worked like a charm to trim all the crêpes to 8-inch rounds, and Steve and I snacked on the trimmings!

The mascarpone cream is a combo of 8 ounces mascarpone, a cup of heavy cream, 1/4 cup of caramel sauce and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whipped up to medium soft peaks, it’s a delicious layering and garnishing cream. I finished it off by blending in about 120 g of my peach purée. Yum.

Let’s assemble! One crêpe down on the plate, a layer of mascarpone spread over, a drizzle or dotting (artistic license here) of raspberry coulis and repeat, repeat, repeat . . . .

I had just enough cream for 18 layers of crêpes as well as a top coating.

Making progress

As you layer this kind of tower, it helps to use your flat palms to press gently on each crêpe layer (before you add the next spread of cream) to try and keep things even. Mine ultimately came out a bit tilted but it still tasted wonderful.

I used my handy small offset spatula to clean the sides up but you don’t really have to do that since this is a rather devil-may-care process for a rustic finish.

Once assembled, refrigerate it at least a couple of hours before serving. Alternatively you can have it ready a day or even two ahead of time.

Dessert time! A pool of raspberry coulis on the plate, a slice of cake topped by fresh peach chunks.

The group loved this! The tart raspberry sauce and just-sweet-enough juicy peaches gave a perfect balance to the creamy crêpe layers. Yes.

And the leftovers weren’t too shabby either!

As we move through September and beyond don’t forget to appreciate the beauty around you. There’s something about petite sweet peas poking out of the undergrowth that always makes me smile.

And you can’t beat this gorgeous contrast! Here’s to autumn!