Chocolate Praline Dacquoise Sandwich Cookies

These decadent cookies are an explosion of flavours and textures. The crunchy, chewy hazelnut dacquoise will pull you in, and the rich chocolate French buttercream will keep you coming back for more. Pipe these cookies in any shape you like. Making a template ahead of time will help with consistency when it comes time to sandwich the pieces together.

Ingredients

Dacquoise:

• 2 cups ground almonds
• 1 ¼ cup icing sugar
• ½ cup cocoa
• 3 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 8 egg whites
• 2 tbsp egg white powder (egg albumen)
• ½ cup granulated sugar

Chocolate French Buttercream:

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 egg yolks
• ¾ cup 70% dark chocolate
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp chocolate extract

Praline:

• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• ¼ vanilla bean, scraped
• 1 ⅔ cups toasted hazelnuts
• 3 g cocoa butter

Decoration:

• 2 ¾ cups dark chocolate callets

Preparation

Dacquoise: 

Heat oven to 350F degrees. Using cardboard, make an oval template to trace, about 2 inches long by 1 ½-inches wide. Trace 48 ovals onto 3 pieces of parchment paper cut to rimmed baking sheets. Flip parchment over, line baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Sift together the almond flour, icing sugar and cocoa in a large bowl. Whisk in the vanilla sugar.    

Beat together the egg whites and egg white powder with a hand mixer until foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar. Beat until the mixture is thick and glossy. Gently fold in the almond mixture. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. 

Pipe onto prepared template-lined trays. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through cooking time. Cool completely. 

Chocolate French Buttercream: 

Place the sugar and water into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and boil until a candy thermometer reads 240 to 245F degrees, brushing the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush if sugar appears on sides of pan to prevent crystallization.  

Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks in a large, heat-proof bowl. While whisking vigorously, pour in hot sugar syrup.  

Beat with a hand mixer on high speed until room temperature, about 3 minutes. Add butter in 3 additions, mixing well after each addition. 

Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl set over a small saucepan of gently simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream, vanilla and chocolate extract. Add the buttercream and stir together. 

Transfer to a piping bag fitted with medium round tip. 

Praline: 

Place the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and boil until a candy thermometer reads 345F degrees, brushing sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush if sugar appears on sides of pan to prevent crystallization.   

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. 

To the hot sugar, immediately stir in the hazelnuts and cocoa butter and pour mixture out onto prepared baking sheet in a thin layer to cool. Once cooled, remove from parchment and break into pieces. Place into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. 

Assembly: 

Line up cookies in pairs. Flip over half and pipe buttercream onto each to within a ¼-inch of edge. Top with second cookie and press together lightly to form a sandwich. Chill in the fridge while tempering the chocolate 

Temper chocolate: 

Heat ¾ of chocolate in a bain-marie to 50C degrees, stirring often. Remove from heat and add reserved chocolate. Continue stirring until temperature reaches 27C degrees. Return briefly to bain-marie and heat gently to 31 to 32C degrees. 

Dip ⅔ of each sandwich cookie into tempered chocolate. Dip chocolate covered part into praline and place onto serving plate to set.

Yield: Makes 24 sandwich cookies