Raspberry Dacquoise

And one last Valentine's Day dessert for the month of Love: a Raspberry Dacquoise. I didn't even know what a dacquoise was until last month, when I read this recipe on Chocolate and Zucchini (still the food blog that I most faithfully read, although David Lebovitz's chocolate tempering post recently caused me to friend him on Facebook and become one of his 3000 friends, no joke). I'm not entirely sure that I do know what a dacquoise is even after having made one, but I'd like to think I made it successfully since I enjoyed eating it, as did my guests.

There seem to be many variations on the dacquoise riff, but here's how this one goes: you make a very thin cake of ground hazelnuts*, almonds, powdered sugar, and stiffly whipped egg whites. The cake gets cut out in the shape of a pastry mold** (another thing whose existence this recipe brought to my attention). You make a cream of whipped heavy cream, strained Greek yogurt, a tad of sugar, and a touch of vanilla, all thickened by gelatin. The cream gets spread into the pastry mold on top of the bottom layer of cake, and raspberries are lined inside the mold, around the edges and through the middle. Cream fills up the remaining mold space, leaving just enough room at the top for the top layer of cake. After some chilling time, you make some sort of stencil for the top, dust it with powdered sugar, and serve it to the rejoicing of your guests.

This is probably one of the most sophisticated and involved desserts I've ever made, and it was more than worth the purchase of the pastry mold and time required to make it. Now to find more dacquoise entremets to make, and more uses for the pastry mold!



*Whole Foods has ground hazelnuts, but they are $11.99 for 14 oz. I bought 16 oz. of whole hazelnuts at Trader Joe's and ground them myself in the food processor, and that 16 oz. was less than $5. I suggest you compare before buying!
**Sur La Table was the only store where I could find the pastry mold without going to a speciality or professional store. It was also called a square ring or mold, and at Sur La Table they were hung from the ceiling - I was lucky to find a salesperson who remembered they were there, after I had repeated the same description to them several times. Since I had never seen a mold in person, this was somewhat difficult! I recommend exploring your options online prior to purchasing, in order to expand the materials, shapes, and sizes available to you.

Almond and Chocolate Cake

This is for those of you who are looking for a flourless option, a lower-carb and higher fiber option, or just a plain good dessert. It has more of a cake texture than flourless chocolate cakes that are mostly made of eggs, since it uses ground almonds to replace the flour.

Almond and Chocolate Cake
From Paris in a Basket

5 oz/150 g unsweetened chocolate or 6 T cocoa
5 oz/225 g sugar (2/3 C)
7 oz/200 g butter, room temperature
10 oz/300 g ground almonds (found at Trader Joe's)
3 T flour (eliminate if you need this to be gluten free)
5 eggs, separated
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1. Grate chocolate by hand or in a food processor (or measure cocoa). Mix with the sugar, the egg yolks, and the butter until blended and smooth.
2. Add the almonds and flour and mix well.
3. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, at soft peak add the baking powder and continue beating until firm. Carefully fold into the other ingredients. Do not overmix.
4. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Rub an 8-inch pan (springform works well) with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour the mixture into the pan, smooth even with a spatula and place in oven. Bake approximately 30 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Let cool, remove from pan and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Serve with a spoonful of creme fraiche/whipped cream and/or fresh raspberries (or at least defrosted frozen fresh raspberries!) on the side.

Flourless Orange Ginger Cake Edged in Chocolate

For some reason this Flourless Orange Ginger Cake recipe jumped out at me this week; I was just scanning the dessert recipes on my favorite food blog, and remembered how it once appealed to me at a time when I did not have 2 hours to boil oranges. I've enjoyed baking other flourless cakes this year, including a chocolate almond cake that was marvelous with raspberries and crème fraîche, so I was eager to see how this would go.

Unlike some flourless chocolate cakes whose content is mostly eggs, this (and the previously mentioned chocolate almond cake) is built with ground almonds. A friend pointed out to me that this makes for an expensive cake, but I will point out that is also makes a fabulous cake texture in the right recipe. Trader Joe's ground almond packages are probably the most affordable and easily accessible option for this; I stock up whenever I can, since sometimes the stores are out of them. Some recipes that call for almond meal or ground almonds need a fairly fine grind, so TJ's ground almonds would need to be passed through a food processor prior to using them in those recipes, but for these cakes the rougher grind has been fine. On the same note of pricey-ness, these cakes also tend to be denser and richer than traditional American cakes, so a smaller amount can serve more people since you will want to cut smaller pieces to serve.

After finding an occasion that would serve as an excuse for baking, I followed Chocolate and Zucchini's recipe pretty closely (but not perfectly, of course!). When it came to the icing, I didn't have a whole lemon, nor pearl sugar. I did have some frozen lemon juice, so I stirred some raw sugar into the defrosted juice and spooned it over the finished cake while it was still warm. I added some extra orange zest on top, which was in big enough pieces to add a bit of texture to the top surface. The last change I made was add dark chocolate edging to the cake; to be completely truthful, I was afraid the edge of the cake was a little too browned, so I cut the browned edge off all the way around and then painted the open edge with chocolate. Since I had already planned on pairing chocolate in some way with the cake, this worked out well! This was a good proportion of chocolate to orange, so that the orange/ginger was not overwhelmed by chocolate.

The result received very good reviews from the tasters, and I myself very much enjoyed eating the cake. It was incredibly moist due to the whole puréed cooked oranges that were mixed in, the fresh and candied ginger bits were a great compliment to the orange, and the chocolate was wonderful with the things I added to it (see below). It also traveled quite well - another benefit of smaller cakes without damage-able icing. It should be stored in the refrigerator wrapped tightly in plastic to preserve the moistness.

Chocolate Edging
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, broken into bits if bar chocolate
2 tsp. orange zest
1 T butter
optional: 1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger

Microwave on high for 30 seconds in a bowl; stir well, and return to microwave for another 30 seconds if necessary to melt completely. Spoon mixture onto the edge of the cake and let solidify either at room temperature or in the refrigerator if in a hurry. May also be used to decorate the top surface of the cake.