I have been thinking for a long time as to what to call this dessert and I still don’t know. What would be a shorter way to describe coconut flavoured crunchy meringue cake layered with Nutella pastry cream? Exactly, haha! Well, who cares about the name anyway? It’s all in the flavour and lucky for us, this one is bloody amazing at that! I’m telling you, if you can’t decide on what to make for your Valentine, THIS IS IT. It’s pretty quick for what it is and omg, the end result is unbelievable! And I speak from experience.  Jack is my official taste tester now and I literally have a photo album capturing his reactions while he was eating it! Only if I could insert it here hahaha. Just to give you guys a little information on the science behind it, I have described the components briefly below. I know, nerd!

#NerdAlert!

Let’s talk a little about the basics here.

First up: Pastry cream, also called Creme Patissiere in French (creme pat) a.k.a your good old custard, only homemade. How many of us are guilty of buying store bought custard powder which sorta does the job but sorta doesn’t and pretty much tastes like blah? ME! I have done it SO many times and yes it is convenient with our busy lifestyles but I had never made the real thing until I started culinary school and my god, was it a revelation?!  I don’t think I can ever go back to store bought custard again, nope not happening! No but seriously, in the world of patisserie, a custard is probably the most basic thing ever. You can literally make 100’s of variations with this one single thing- no kidding. If you genuinely like baking and want to keep at it, my #1 recommended! Today, we are keeping it simple and using it as it is, with of course adding our favourite, drumrollss…..NUTELLA! Okay, couple of basics to remember with creme pat.

1. How does it work? There are two thickening agents here- egg yolks and cornflour. Egg yolks give the custard it’s smooth, luscious texture while cornflour when boiled with a liquid (milk here) gelatinises for the custard to hold its shape. Over-cooking the custard can cause the eggs to scramble and you will end up with a big lumpy mess. Under-cooking will not give enough time for the cornflour to gelatinise and you’ll have a runny custard instead of a smooth thick one. So make sure you cook your custard just enough- when you start seeing bubbles, that’s an indication that your cornflour is cooked.

2. You must continuously whisk your custard while cooking it to avoid any lumps as it cooks really fast. However, once cooled, do not whisk too rigorously or else you’ll break the cornflour structure. I know, it might sound complicated for anybody who is new to baking, but trust me, this is as simple as it gets.

Next up: Dacquoise (pronounced as dak-wa-z). Now I don’t expect any home bakers to know what a dacquoise is (pat yourself if you do because I had no freaking idea haha). It is just a fancy French word for a nut based crunchy meringue cake. It’s basically meringue mixed with any nut meal & icing sugar, in essence. I love dacquoise. It’s truly amazing, it’s crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside and can be adapted to any nut of your choice- almond, hazelnut, walnut, pecan, etc etc. Plus it’s gluten free so win win for any of you who cannot eat gluten. I know I know, by the name of it, it sounds like this really fancy complicated thing, but it couldn’t be any easier to make, literally! Only thing to remember while a dacquoise is, you don’t wanna over-mix and loose all the aeration. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the meringue and not vice versa otherwise hello lumps! It’s a breeze, really!

Phew, that was quite some information, wasn’t it? I hope you all learned something new and hopefully, a little more excited to try something new  Okay, let’s get baking now!   I hope you enjoy this, either with your Valentine, or by yourself (more cake yay! :P) and oh Happy Valentine’s Day ! 

Recipe

Makes: 4 serves

Ingredients

For the nutella pastry cream:

• 300 g whole milk

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 60 g egg yolks (approx. 3-4 eggs, save yolks from the above eggs)

• 50 g castor sugar

• 30 g cornflour

• 25 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes

• 100 g nutella, at room temperature

• 2 tbsp baileys, optional (but recommended)

For the coconut dacquoise:

• 20 g almond meal

• 60 g dried shredded coconut

• 60 g icing sugar

• 30 g castor sugar

• 85 g egg whites (approx. 3 eggs)

Method

For the nutella pastry cream:

• Boil milk with vanilla in a deep pot.

• Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until pale. (called a slurry)

• Once the milk is boiled, add half the milk to the slurry and whisk well. Pour back into the milk in the pot and cook on medium-high heat until starts boiling, whisking continuously. It will only take 2-3 mins as it will thicken really quickly.  (It does not need to boil like crazy, just a few bubbles is a good enough indication that the cornflour is cooked.)

• Remove from heat and stir in the butter, until completely melted.

• Lastly, add the nutella and baileys and mix well.

• Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and put a cling film on the surface of the cream. Refrigerate until completely cool.

For the coconut dacquoise:

• Preheat oven to 170 C.  Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Keep aside.

• Blitz the almond meal, shredded coconut and icing sugar together in a food processor or a blender until combined and no icing sugar lumps remain. Keep aside.

• Whip up egg whites in a clean bowl until foamy. Once they foam, start adding the castor sugar gradually, a tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking until medium stiff peak forms. (You can either do this in a stand mixer, hand beater or by hand. It will just take longer and more effort by hand. )

• Once the meringue is done, gently fold in the dry ingredients using a spatula, until just combined. (Add the dry ingredients into the meringue and not the other way around).

• Put the mixture into a piping bag with a round nozzle (6mm) and pipe straight lines onto the tray. (Pipe all the mixture on the tray, we will cut into slabs once they are baked.)

• Bake at 160 C for 20 mins. Take out the tray from the oven and cut into rectangles. Bake for 10 mins more or until completely dry and crispy. Let it cool.

Assembly:

• Once the nutella cream has completely cooled down, take it out of the refrigerator and give it a quick whisk just enough to smoothen. Do not over whisk, you will break the structure of cornflour and it will be a runny custard instead. Put the pastry cream into a piping bag with a nozzle of your choice. I use the french star nozzle.

• Pipe the cream onto a layer of the cooled coconut dacquoise. Place another layer on top and pipe again. Repeat with the rest. Garnish with fresh strawberries. Serve immediately.

Pro tip: You could also spread melted chocolate on each cake layer. This will not only add flavour, but also keep the cake from getting soggy 

Notes:

• This cannot be assembled beforehand as the meringue biscuit will become moist and soggy due to the moisture. However, you can prepare everything in advance and just assemble as when you like.

If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow long here: