Cobnut and chocolate Dacquoise

Its that time of the week again where we head to The great British bake blogger off now it is week 8 and it is the quarter finals !!!!

Signature: a loaf of bread that does not use traditional wheat flour so something with Spelt, Rye, Potato or Tapioca 

Technical Challenge: a Dacquoise which consists of 3 layers; coiled meringue, coffee custard and a glaze top

Showstopper Challenge: a novelty vegetable cakes which must be dairy free

I am making a Dacquoise this week, as you may have noticed above.  However instead of using the traditional hazelnuts i wanted to use seasonal cobnuts which can be foraged this time of year and are found in the south east predominantly of the country although i have seen the trees in Cornwall and Devon also.  Cobnuts are like hazelnuts but they are larger with whiter flesh and a milkier nutty flavour and as they are fresh will give my dacquoise a much better flavour than a packet of dried hazelnut nuts.  My top tip here is bake them in the oven for 5 mins to bring out the flavour in the nuts

A dacquoise is made up three layers of coiled Italian hazelnut meringues with custards, ganaches, mousses or creams all topped off with a glaze.

Ingredients for the Meringue layers 

8 egg whites

½ tsp cream of tartar

40g/1½ oz caster sugar

170g/6oz ground almonds

170g/6oz icing sugar

20g/¾oz plane flour, sifted

40g/1½oz cobnuts finely chopped

Preheat oven to 150C

1 For the meringue layers, trace four circles around the cake ring onto baking parchment with a pencil.

2 Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.

3 Then slowly whisk in the caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.

4 Blend the almonds with the icing sugar in a food processor for a minute. Fold the ground almond mixture and the flour into the whisked egg whites with a metal spoon until incorporated.

5 Transfer the meringue to a piping bag, fitted with a 1cm/½in plain nozzle. Pipe in a spiral onto the baking parchment circles starting from the centre and piping outwards. Sprinkle with the chopped cobnuts and bake for an hour until dry and crisp. i tend to leave these in the oven for another hour with the door ajar.

The Stripy collar for the cake is a Joconde

Joconde decor paste

50g unsalted butter, softened

50g icing sugar

50g egg whites 

43g self raising flour sifted

15g cocoa powder sifted

1 Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

2 Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.

3 Fold in sifted flour and cocoa powders.

4 Make and scrapped or pipe a pattern and place in the freezer

Joconde sponge

85g almond flour

75g icing sugar

25g self raising flour 

3 large eggs

3 large egg whites

2½ teaspoons caster sugar

30g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven at 200°C 

1 In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.

2 add almond flour, sift icing sugar and self raising flour.

3 On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light.

4 Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.

5 Fold in melted butter.

Remove the Décor Paste from the freezer and quickly spread the sponge batter over the design, covering it totally. It should be a thin layer so that it is malleable after baking.

Bake  for approximately 5 minutes or until it starts browning on the edges. 

You do not have to make a joconde for a dacquoise but i was trying to go for my attempt at a cake you would see in a patisserie so it looked neat and professional

So for the layers inbetween the meringue one is supposed to be a coffee custard 

For the mousseline custard

2 whole eggs

1 yolks

110g caster sugar

25g plain flour

250ml milk

3g gelatine

125g butter room soft

4 tsp espresso

My next two layers were chocolate mousses one white to not have to many flavours competing and the top a dark bitter chocolate which i would say seemed after research was the thing to do but i would have liked to of had found a lighter airier mousse for the top dark layer so if you have a proper cake mousse pls share with me as i feel the ganche is to firm and a chocolate custard to match the coffee would have been to loose and the structure of the cake would have slipped

Chocolate mousse 

9 oz chocolate

1 1/2 cups of double cream

whip the cream 

melt the chocolate and fold into the cream 

Chocolate glaze

To give the dacquoise a nice shiny top i also made a glaze

50g dark bitter chocolate

25g butter

30 golden syrup

melt together and pour allow to set

Spun sugar 

1 cup of sugar 

1/2 cup of water

25g glucose 

put all ingredients in a pan do not stir the sugar will start to turn brown at this stage it is able to be flicked back and forth over a skewer and raveled up to create a shape.

To assemble the cake place the joconde around the edge of a push pan and place a meringue base at the bottom you may need to trim this.  On top of this place the custard then another meringue followed by a mousse another meringue and another mousse then the glaze.  As the dark chocolate was so dark i wanted make this sparkle so i got a gold leaf i was going to place around the top but it escaped from the pack and plopped on top of the cake ha ha so i have a big plop of gold so i tried to badly disguise this with some spun sugar.  

Once again this is linking up with the Great blogger bake off Helen and Jenny