What is dacquoise: origins and basic preparation

Dacquoise, let’s find out what and how to use the French meringue biscuit so loved by pastry chefs and so simple to prepare.

The dacquoise is a basic preparation of French pastry, a cross between a meringue and a macaron with a crunchy texture on the outside and soft on the inside . It is usually used as a base in desserts to give a crunchy note, especially in combination with creams and mousses and is prepared with only three ingredients : semi-whipped egg whites, sugar and dried fruit flour.

The most used variant is the almond dacquoise but there are also those of hazelnuts and walnuts based on the creativity of the pastry chef. As it is easy to guess from the name, the biscuit dacquoise is usually prepared round , dressing the dough on parchment paper with a pastry bag, but nobody forbids you to choose other shapes. Dacquoise is an almond and meringue based recipe that you should keep in mind if you are an amateur pastry chef.

Dacquoise: the basic recipe to prepare it

1. Beat the egg whites with half the sugar using an electric mixer or a planetary mixer fitted with a wire hook.
2. Mix the remaining sugar with the almond flour and incorporate everything into the previous mixture with gentle movements from the bottom up.
3. Transfer everything to a pastry bag equipped with a smooth spout of one centimeter and dress it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. To help you draw a precise circle, you can trace the shape of the mold that you are going to use with a pencil and then turn the sheet so as to see it transparently. With these doses, two 20 cm discs come out.
4. Cook at 180 ° C for 15 minutes, keeping the oven door ajar. Use it once cold by gently peeling it off the paper.

All variants of the dacquoise

The simplest variants of this dessert are the pistachio dacquoise and the hazelnut dacquoise which are prepared simply by replacing the almond flour with the pistachio and hazelnut flour. As for the coconut dacquoise , replace 90 g of almond flour with the same amount of coconut flour and you will get a truly incredible base for your desserts, perfect for those tropical-inspired preparations. Could we then have left you without the recipe for chocolate dacquoise ? In this case, replace 25 g of almond flour with the same weight of bitter cocoa and you’re done.

And if you want something more classic, just try the chocolate sponge cake recipe .

storage

The dacquoise fears humidity so we advise you to keep it well protected by aluminum foil for a maximum of one day before using it in your recipes.