Going Nuts

After my brush with temptation last week, I had a serious hankering for a luscious sweet gateau overbrimming with silky buttercream (that's what being faced with boxes upon boxes of doughnuts will do to a girl, even one as resolute as I). Since this was a banner weekend chez Fractured Amy, requiring a Cake for a Very Special Occasion, I decided to pull out all the stops and make a Dacquoise, one of my patisserie favorites long before the days of gluten-freedom obliged me to eschew the joys of wheat flour.

Here's how I did it.

I roasted two cups of hazelnuts in the oven at 250 deg F until they were brown and toasty and the kitchen smelled delightful. I dumped them in my food processor with one and one-half cups of sugar.

I whizzed them around until they were suitably powdery - but I stopped before my mixture got oily.

With my loyal electric handmixer, I whipped up six egg whites until they were foamy; added three tablespoons of sugar; and continued beating the living daylights out of them until I had lovely glossy peaks (much like the Alps before global warming caused them all to melt). I stirred in a tablespoon of vanilla.

I folded in the nuts and piped the resulting mixture into three long rectangles, each about sixteen inches by four. I suppose that strictly speaking, given its shape, the final product may have been a Marjolaine.

I baked them for an hour at 250 deg F until they came easily off the silicon parchment.

While that was happening, I whipped up three cups of Julia Child's French buttercream (that's the one made with sugar boiled to 240 deg F, not the one made with custard). I divided the buttercream into three lots. To one I added melted semisweet chocolate; to another I added melted white chocolate; and the third I flavored with a hefty dose of Amarula liqueur, purchased in Johannesburg at Tambo International Airport's duty free and our current tipple of choice.

I layered the buttercream between and around my hazelnut meringue layers and refrigerated the whole thing overnight. I served the slices on my prettiest plates.

And there was much rejoicing.

Particularly by me.