Almond dacquoise

Dacquoise is a layer of meringue and ground almonds: crisp outside, slightly chewy inside, with a toasted nut flavour. It’s popular in cream cakes because the crisp layer contrasts with a soft filling. The common failure is a collapsed meringue, which gives flat, dense or sticky layers.

Ingredients and what each one does

• Egg whites make the foam that gives the structure.
• Sugar stabilises the foam. Use fine sugar, not icing sugar: the starch in icing sugar interferes with whipping the whites.
• Ground almonds bring flavour and fat that makes the layer more tender. Blanched almonds give a paler layer.
• Icing sugar only as a small part of the dry mix with the almonds, so it doesn’t clump.

How to make it

1. The bowl must be perfectly clean and grease-free: glass or metal, not plastic, wiped with lemon juice or vinegar. Any fat stops the whites from rising.
2. Start whisking room-temperature whites (about 21 °C) with a pinch of salt at low speed until foamy.
3. Add the fine sugar gradually in small portions. Whip to stiff, glossy peaks and until the sugar has dissolved: rub a drop between your fingers and feel no grains. Undissolved sugar later weeps as sticky droplets.
4. Sift the almonds with the icing sugar and fold them in gently with a spatula in three additions, only until the dry streaks vanish. Almonds are heavy and their oil breaks the foam, so don’t overwork it.
5. Spread or pipe discs on parchment, about 1–1.5 cm thick.
6. Dry for about an hour at 120 °C (20° lower with a fan oven) until the surface is dry. This is drying more than baking. Switch the oven off and let the layers cool inside; a sudden change of temperature causes cracks.
7. Peel off the parchment only when completely cool.

What can go wrong

• Flat and dense. The foam was deflated while folding in the almonds.
• Sticky. Underdried, or the sugar hadn’t dissolved.
• Cracks. The oven was too hot, or the cooling too abrupt.
• Brown. The temperature was too high; lower it for a paler layer.

Substitutions

Part of the almonds can be replaced with hazelnuts or another nut, changing the flavour. A little cornflour in the meringue binds moisture; try a small batch and compare.

Storage

A week in an airtight container, dry. A moist filling softens dacquoise within a day, so a thin layer of ganache between cream and layer protects the crunch for longer.