Are you ready to lose your mind? Here’s a dessert I 200% recommend if you want to impress your friends. I’m not usually one for personal stories, but the first time I saw this cake I had no idea what it was. I came home from work to this big, crusty, frosted connection that was half eaten on the stove and literally asked my dad, “What the hell is this?”. He told me just to try it, and with just one bite I almost melted. These cakes are rich, and in their 3 layers have an unidentifiable number of textures. We decided it was too messy as a cake meant to cut into multiple servings, so we decided to make it into single-serving cakes. If you’re not an experienced baker, I highly recommend carefully reading this recipe, adapted from Food and wine, before beginning.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup hazelnuts (almonds or pecans work fine if you can’t find hazelnuts)
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp pure almond extract
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
- chocolate shavings, for garnish
- frozen raspberries (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw 21, 2.5inch circles on the parchment papers.
- Spread the hazelnuts on a third baking sheets and toast for about 12 minutes until browned. When done, let cool the rub in a towel to remove the skins. Chop nuts and lower oven temperature to 225.
- Using an electric standing mixer, whisk egg whites with the salt at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar at ingredients speed until stiff.
- Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts. Fold in the hazelnut and chocolate chips. Pour the melted chocolate down the side of the bowl and gently fold the meringue is lightly marbled.
- Spread the meringue in the drawn circles and bake for about 60-90 min, until crisp. Rotate the pans halfway through baking. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and left the meringues cool completely.
- In a bowl using the standing mixer, beat the cream with the confectioners sugar until firm. Remove the meringues from the parchment paper. Make sure meringues are completely cooled.
- Spread the whipped cream on the meringue layers. Stack 3 layers together. You should have a total of 7 cakes, which three layers each.
- Garnish is raspberries and chocolate shavings just before serving.
I highly recommend to serve this with espresso or cappuccino.
adapted from : http://www.foodandwine.com