A Meal to Impress

A Meal to Impress

Part One

Hi everyone.  This is my first posting as a new blogger.  If you want to read all about me, head on over to my profile.  If you just want some instructions on a meal that will impress, along with a slight back story, keep on keeping on...

Every year, I (with my husband's assistance) cook a meal for both my mom and stepfather and also my dad and step mom.  It is one way of saying thank you for all they have done for me through the years and also a gift I can give them that I know they will use... Come on, how may times have you struggled through the list of what to give your parents?  I do it EVERY.  YEAR.  I digress...

This year I had my dad, step mom, and sister in town on Christmas and made a meal that I found to be a feast for both the eyes and the stomach.  It just made a nice table and eight very full bellies.  I decided to repeat a few of the recipes for when my mom, step dad, and sister (again... Just cannot get enough of seeing my original best friend!) came to town to celebrate our Christmas.  And as I get ready for their arrival, I thought it would make a perfect first blog post.  I love to cook, and I especially love to cook desserts.  I made this dessert and it got such rave reviews I decided I had to make it again.

As will almost always be true on this blog, my recipe comes from America's Test Kitchen.  Who are they?  Google it.  Now.  Go ahead, I will wait.  They are worth it.  Even if you do not come back to my blog, if I was able to turn another ambitious cook towards America's Test Kitchen genius, it was worth it.  I will take the hit.

The recipe I am starting today (Thursday) will be served in two days (Saturday).  When I made this the first time I actually separated it out more and took about four days to make it.  After doing it once, I feel comfortable I can do it in two (or maybe two and a half with finishing touches on Saturday).  The recipe is called Chocolate-Espresso Dacquoise.  It came from this publication.  Already, people will be impressed.  I cannot pronounce the main word in the recipe, that is how fancy it is.  Hold on, I will google it and see how to pronounce it.  It is French.  It is pronounced da-kwaz.  Hear it on this dictionary.com site.  This dessert is a show stopper.  It is beautiful before you cut into it and the inside is perfection with the layers.  It is less of an chocolate-espresso flavor to me and more of a peanut butter chocolate heavenly textured party in your mouth.  That is just my personal opinion.

Today I am going to go through how I started this dessert and the steps I took so I could finish it tomorrow.  I am literally typing this after I put the meringue in the oven and started the buttercream icing...  But I am getting ahead of myself.

This post will go through each step with some nicely placed photos.  At the end of the post will be more detailed instructions.  Enjoy my process and have a great day!

First and foremost, I started by making a meringue.  When making this meringue, it called for room temperature egg whites.  So, I took the eggs out and had them on the counter while I gathered and prepped my other ingredients.  The meringue is a hazelnut almond meringue (and it is delicious all by itself.  My kids devoured the extra pieces I had!) and so we need some nuts...

I could only find a bag of whole hazelnuts still in their shells.  So my step one was getting the buggers out of their shell.  I used a meat tenderizer and got out some pent up anger on those little nuts.

They are so pretty... but so hard to get out!

Meat tenderizer, meet hazelnuts... See what I did there?

That right there is one busted nut.

Compost bin full of shells.

All my little hazelnut jewels.

Now that you have all the hazelnuts our of their shells, it is time to remove their skins.  I have read how most people roast the hazelnuts and then rub them on a kitchen towel to remove the skins.  I have done this in the past and it did not work well enough for me.  (As this blog moves forward, you will see I have the tendency to like things neat, tidy, and complete... and also completely symmetrical.)  Instead, I used this method here.  Willow over at willcookforfriends.com has it all figured out.  I was not very methodical here.  I put my hazelnuts in water, brought it to a boil, added some baking soda, let them boil some more, and tested a nut.  If the skin came off, they all went into the colander and got hit with some cold water.  After that, I peeled them.

Boiling some nuts, do dah, do dah.

Adding some baking soda will get you some bubbles.

And then you start to see part of the shells floating in the water.

And there is the gross liquid... which equals easy removal seeds for you.

Hitting them with a cold rinse.

Taking a nut and giving it a squeeze...

... and off comes the skin!

And we have some peeled hazelnuts, oh the doo dah day!

Some of the nuts may have halved during the process.  That is OK!  Also, a small amount of skin may remain on.  Do not agonize over it too much.  Let's take a breath and move on together, shall we?

Next up is the toasting.  Some toast in the oven... but I guess that would be roasting... I, however, toast in the pan.  My all-clad pan.  Also know as my shiny metal baby.  I am using this one.  Did I pay that much for it?  Oh heck no.  I found mine at TJMaxx on clearance for $55.  I will do my own little happy dance over that one... again... because you know I did one when I found it the first time.  I love how fast it cleans up with a little bar keeper's friend.  Again, I digress.  I put all of the hazelnuts in the pan and toasted them on medium heat.  First you will hear them dry out.  Then you will smell the glorious aroma of toasting hazelnuts.  I toast mine until they have very small toast marks on them.  It took me about seven minutes for mine to toast.  I watch them the whole time, I do NOT walk away, and I am stirring with a wooden spoon or moving the pan around every fifteen to thirty seconds.  After that, I put them in their bowl and toast up some blanched almonds.  Why blanched?  One, that is what the recipe called for and two... well there is no two, but I can guess why it calls for blanched.  Blanched equals no skin.  No skin equals no bitterness and no color variation.  The almonds I toasted using the same method, but the pan was still warm, so they toasted up rather quickly, about four minutes.

Toasting them nuts in my pan.

Yummy yummy.  Feel free to snack on one.  They are delish!

Toasting the almonds.

They quickly get done.

Now it is on to the meringue.  Preheat the oven to 250 and take out your twelve favorite hazelnuts and set them aside.  They will go on the top.  I also made extra of each nut.  The original recipe calls for toasted sliced almonds on the side of the finished product.  I did not think this added anything to the recipe so I will be trying something else.

Next we have to prep the pan for the meringue.  It involves parchment paper and a ruler.  I used my cutting board ruler (I am sure that is not the proper name for it) to I knew it would be relatively square.  It is a 13 inch by 10.5 inch rectangle.  Mark the parchment paper rolly side up.  Again, another technical term.  You then grease the pan and place the paper marked side down on the pan.

The ruler makes me happy.

I always Pam my pan while it is sitting on my open dishwasher door.  No mess to clean up!

Paper stuck to pan.

You can FAINTLY see the line in this picture.  Do not worry, you will see yours.

Time to process our nuts!  Add the appropriate amount of each nut, and some cornstarch to the processor and take it for a spin!  After that, we add in some sugar.

All the ingredients... and my very old Cuisinart processor.

Nuts, salt, and cornstarch before...

... and after!

Adding some sugar...

... and 2-3 pulses later all done!

Remember those eggs we took out earlier?  Time to crack them open!  I have a very large KitchenAid mixer.  It is a 6-quart bowl.  I find that I have to use faster speeds than the recipe calls for when I use it, but the same amount of time.  So, egg whites and some cream of tartar goes in.  After some mixing we add in some sugar and then whisk them hard until we get some stiff peaks.

Getting the egg whites frothy. 

Now they are getting a nice, soft foam going.

And that is what my stiff peaked egg whites look like.

Now we add the nut mixture to the egg whites.  This is done by FOLDING, not stirring, them in.  To fold, you simply take a rubber spatula and wipe around the bowl and then bring the spatula under the majority of your ingredients and then flipping them over.  Does that make sense?  Anyways, it is a gentle way of mixing your ingredients so as not to lose all the air you just put into your egg whites.  Then spread the mixture onto your parchment paper and try to get it as even as possible.  Another time where I needed to accept how even it was and walk away.  You will be building a cake with this meringue, not a house.  It will be OK.  Mist it with some water and put it in the oven.  And your meringue has only cook and cool time until it is done.

Adding the nut mixture to the egg whites.

Scraping the bowl and then...

...folding the whole mixture over on top of itself.

A completely combined meringue.

Using an offset metal spatula to spread it.

All spread out.

After sprayed with water, it goes to the oven.

And that is step one of the cake.  You can stop here for the day if you are doing a four day process.  I did the first time I made it.  For my more adventurous readers, on we go to the buttercream!

Once the meringue goes in the oven, get started on the buttercream icing.  Bring milk in a small saucepan to a simmer.  And when I say small saucepan, I mean a metal saucepan that holds about 4 quarts.  I will be using a whisk and I am not a fan of the rubber whisks.  Mine always end up splitting where the rubber is and scratching my non-stick pans.  And whisks.  Let me tell you about my favorite whisk.  OXO medium balloon whisk.  It is the perfect size.  It does not tip out of the bowl if you rest it there for a minute and after 5 years it has not needed replaced.  I.  Love.  It.  Again, shocking I know, I digress...

While the milk comes to a simmer, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Once the milk comes to a simmer, it is time to temper your egg mixture.  This just means we will slowly bring the eggs to a warmer temperature without turning them into scrambled eggs.  Because no one wants scrambled eggs in their dessert.  After tempering, we put it all back in the pan and whisk until it gets thick.  And let me tell you, it goes from not thick to thick in a matter of a second.  You will be sitting their whisking and then BOOM out of nowhere you have pudding.  So watch it.  Like a hawk.  And whisk it constantly.  Do.  Not.  Walk.  Away.  Then it goes into the fridge to cool and set.

Eggs, cornstarch, sugar and salt...

... whisked to a smooth consistency.

This  is what simmering milk looks like.  Small bubbles on the edge of the milk formed without stirring.

After tempering and adding the eggs back into the pan.

Final product...

... thick like pudding.

After the meringue has cooked for an hour and a half and cooled for an hour and a half, and after the egg mixture has cooled and set for two hours, it is time to continue on; however, this blog post has taken a little longer than I thought and I am going to stop here for the day.  Tomorrow, I will finish up the whole dessert and show you what you end up with!

If you stayed on until here, thanks!  I know it got long, but I feel like it will be worth it.  Have a great day and until next time.

Chocolate-Espresso Dacquoise

Ingredients and Instructions for the Meringue:

• 3/4 Cup blanched almonds (sliced, slivered, however you can find them)
• Bag of Hazelnuts, shells on (1 pound)
• 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
• 1/8 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 4 Egg Whites, Room Temperature (Save the egg yolks for the buttercream)
• 1/4 Teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Crack open the hazelnuts and throw away (or compost) the shells.
2. Bring hazelnuts and water to a boil in 6 quart saucepan.
3. Add in about 2 tablespoons of baking soda.
4. Check to see if the skins are loose after about 3 minutes; if they are, dump the pan into a colander and shock the nuts with cold water.  If not, let them boil another minute or so and then dump them into the colander.
5. Squeeze the hazelnuts out of their skins.  Discard (or compost) skins and keep nuts.
6. Toast the hazelnuts in a 12 inch pan over medium heat.  Toast until the hazelnuts begin to get dark spots and darken slightly in color.  Set hazelnuts aside in bowl.
7. Put almonds into pan and toast for about 4 minutes.  Once almonds begin darkening they are finished.  Put them in a bowl.
8. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
9. Mark a piece of parchment paper to a rectangle of 10.5 inches by 13 inches.  Grease a rimmed baking sheet and put parchment paper MARKED SIDE DOWN on sheet.
10. Process 3/4 cup of the almonds, 1/2 cup of the hazelnuts (remember to take out your 12 best ones first for the topping later on!), cornstarch, and salt for about 20 seconds until it resembles bread crumbs.  Process in 1/2 cup of the sugar.
11. Mix the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixer on medium speed until frothy, about 2 minutes.  Bring the speed up and mix until thicker and white but no peaks form.  Then add in the other 1/2 cup of sugar, turn it up to high and whisk it until firm peaks form, about 4 minutes.
12. Fold in the mixture of nuts and sugar into the egg whites.  Spread mixture on marked parchment paper and mist with water.  Bake for 1.5 hours and then turn the oven off and let cool in oven for 1.5 hours.  Then take it out and let it cool completely.  At this point, wrap it up and it will stay for 2 days at room temperature if wrapped tightly with saran wrap.

Ingredients and Instructions for the Buttercream (for this part only... The rest will be posted once made tomorrow)

• 3/4 Cup Whole Milk
• 4 Egg Yolks
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Tablespoon Cornstarch
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1. Bring the milk to a simmer in a saucepan (about 4 quart size) over medium heat. 
2. While milk simmers, whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a cover-able and microwave safe bowl.  
3. Temper the eggs by slowly pouring half the warmed milk into the egg mixture while constantly whisking.  Slowly pour the egg mixture back into the milk saucepan with the remaining milk.  Whisk and watch the pan until it thickens to look like pudding, about 2 to 3 minutes.  DO NOT WALK AWAY.  It will burn.  Put it back in your bowl, give it a few more whisks, cover and put it in the fridge.

And we are done for today.  See you tomorrow.

Love,
Andria 💖