Hazelnut Almond Dacquoise
Ever since I had the hazelnut almond dacquoise at Flour a few years ago, I knew I needed to try and recreate it for the blog one day. Flour is a Boston institution, but everyone knows it for the sandwiches and especially the sticky buns. The dacquoise doesn’t get as much love, but it is my favorite! It tastes like a giant candy bar! I was going to do a fun flavor switch-up on this, but it’s so perfect as-is that I decided to leave it alone. Making this cake is definitely a project, but when you unveil it to your family and friends this holiday it will make all the effort totally worth it.
First pulse up almond and hazelnut into a powder.
Meanwhile, whip some egg whites to soft peaks.
Fold the almond, hazelnut, and powdered sugar into the whipped eggs.
Then pipe them into some pre drawn rectangles on parchment paper on a sheet pan.
They bake for 3 hours plus some additional time in the oven. Joanne suggests 6 to 12 hours. I did 1 and a half and they still came out fine.
The next step is making the buttercream. Drizzle syrup that has been brought to a soft ball into some well beaten eggs and mix for a good 8 minutes.
The texture is nice and silky. Then you add the butter and it becomes more lacy.
This icing is great. Add some coffee powder and you are done.
Then you get to build the thing! Meringue, followed by ganache, more meringue, buttercream, and then the top meringue. Your meringues will probably break, but it’s ok, just put them back together and let the ganache and buttercream be the glue to hold them together. 4 out of my 6 meringues cracked.
Fill in the sides and top with more buttercream to make it into a nice uniform shape.
Then pour on the ganache to form the final outer coating.
Phew! Lots of work but totally worth it. This cake is rich and delicious and totally worthy of being on a holiday table.
Like I said earlier, it’s like a big candy bar! The meringue acts like the nougat and the textures are crunchy, chewy, and creamy.
It’s not overly sweet and it features more grownup dessert flavors like dark chocolate, coffee and hazelnut
For anyone looking to add something special to your holiday table this year, this cake is it. Like I said earlier, I followed a Joanne Chang recipe exactly. Her recipe was posted online and I linked it, but the link is gone now. I will work on my own version soon and update this page when I do. In the mean time, it is also in her book Flour. Or you can probably order a dacquoise one at any of the Flour locations if you want the end result without all the work.