For the first of my monthly challenges celebrating 10 years of Store-Bought is Fine, I made Joe Beef’s Marjolaine!
It felt like the perfect way to kick things off – partly because I’ve been dreaming about it since Ina wrote in Barefoot Contessa Parties, “I can’t say enough about assembling food rather than cooking … my friends won’t have more fun if I spend two days making a dacquoise for dessert than if I buy a delicious pound cake at a bakery and serve it with lemon curd and raspberries.” It was like she was daring me to attempt it
At the time, I had no idea what a dacquoise was – but a quick Google sent me down a delicious rabbit hole. For anyone else wondering, it’s a layered French dessert made with ground nut infused meringue, ganache and buttercream and a Marjolaine is a specific type of dacquoise.
This version starts with sheets of hazelnut dacquoise – crisp on the outside, tender inside, and just sweet enough – layered with dark chocolate ganache, silky vanilla bean buttercream, and a Nutella-infused buttercream that’s my new favorite. It’s finished with a scattering of toasted hazelnuts for crunch. The recipe calls for a special mold (or creating one out of half-gallon milk jugs, but a plastic-wrap-lined Pullman loaf pan worked perfectly for me!
After assembling, the cake chills overnight so the layers meld and set creating something akin to a fancy, refined French candy bar. It was an dream of a dessert, and, yes, while it’s a project it’s worth every bit of time!
Book: The Art of Living According to Joe Beef, page 255
Rating: 5/5
How Easy Is That – Skill Level: Difficult
How Easy Is That – Time Involved: Not for the faint of heart
Store-Bought Is Fine: Nutella
Recipe on Epicurious.
